Meditations Book 9 Passage 40
Mediations, Book 9 Passage 40 goes as follows:
Either the gods have no power or they have power. If, then, they have no power, why dost thou pray to them? But if they have power, why dost thou not pray for them to give thee the faculty of not fearing any of the things which thou fearest, or of not desiring any of the things which thou desirest, or not being pained at anything, rather than pray that any of these things should not happen or happen? For certainly if they can co-operate with men, they can co-operate for these purposes. But perhaps thou wilt say the gods have placed them in thy power. Well, then, is it not better to use what is in thy power like a free man than to desire in a slavish and abject way what is not in thy power? And who has told thee that the gods do not aid us, even in the things which are in our power? Begin then, to pray for such things, and thou wilt see. One man prays thus: How shall I be able to lie with that woman? Do thou pray thus: How shall I not desire to lie with her? Another prays thus: How shall I be release from this? Pray thou: How shall I not desire to be released? Another thus: How shall I not lose my little son? Thou thus: How shall I not be afraid to lose him? In fine, turn thy prayers this way, and see what comes.
by Marcus Aureleus
All books should have a pocket sized edition of them
I’ve bought 4 books from LindyPress (highly reccomend by the way), Meditations being one of them which is actually pocket sized. It’s great to not have to lug around a huge book.
Infinite Jest is one of those huge novels that you don’t dare take anywhere because its just intrusively big. I get the feeling that people might see me with a large book and think I’m over compensating in some way.
So, someone should split up books like that into a multitude of smaller editions which can be carried anywhere. I wonder why this isn’t done more?