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“Away with thy books, suffer not thy mind any more to be distracted, and carried to and fro; for it will not be;”

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— Marcus Aurelius

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Live wording check · 2026-10-26

Author: Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius e particle; How can I either be hurt by any of those, since it is not in their power to make me incur anything that is truly reproachful? or angry, and ill affected towards him, who by nature is so near unto me? for we are all born to be fellow-workers, as the feet, the hands, and the eyelids; as the rows of the upper and under teeth: for such therefore to be in opposition, is against nature; and what is it to chafe at, and to be averse from, but to be in opposition? XVI. Whatsoever I am, is either flesh, or life, or that which we commonly call the mistress and overruling part of man; reason. Away with thy books, suffer not thy mind any more to be distracted, and carried to and fro; for it will not be; but as even now ready to die, think little of thy flesh: blood, bones, and a skin; a pretty piece of knit and twisted work, consisting of nerves, veins and arteries; think no more of it, than so. And as for thy life, consider what it is; a wind; not one constant wind neither, but every moment of an hour let out, and sucked in again. The third, is thy ruling part; and here consider; Thou art an old man; suffer not that excellent part to be brought in subjection, and to become slavish: suffer it not to be drawn up and down with unreasonable and unsociable lusts and motions, as it were with wire Public domain in the USA.
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Source

Title
Meditations
Type
Public-domain primary text · Primary source
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Context

Marcus rebukes himself for intellectual distraction.

What it means

Urges concentration on living philosophy rather than endless reading.

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Bibliography entry
Aurelius, Marcus. (n.d.). Meditations. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2680/pg2680.txt
Quotation citation
Aurelius (n.d.)
In-text citation
(Aurelius, n.d.)

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Provenance: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2680/pg2680.txt