当你不把你的思想指向公共福利的某个目标时,不要把你剩下的生命浪费在思考别人上。因为,当你有这种思想时,你就丧失了做别的事情的机会。这个人在做什么,为什么做,他说了什么,想了什么,争论什么,注意所有这些事情将使我们忽略了观察我们自己的支配力量。所以我们应当在我们的思想行进中抑制一切无目的和无价值的想法,以及大量好奇和恶意的情感;一个人应当仅仅使他想这样一些事:即当别人突然问:"你现在想什么?"他都能完全坦白地直接回答:想这个或那个,并且从你的话里清楚地表明:你心中的一切都是朴实和仁爱的,都有利于一个社会动物,你是一个全然不关注快乐或感官享受的人,也没有敌意、嫉妒和疑心,或者有任何别的你说出来会感到脸红的念头。因为,一个毫不拖延地如此回答的人是属于最好的人之列,犹如神灵的一个使者,他也运用植入他内心的神性,那神性使他不受快乐的玷污,不受痛苦的伤害,不被任何结果接触,也不感受任何恶,是最高尚的战斗中的一个战士;他不被任何激情所压倒,深深渴望正义,满心欢喜地接受一切对他发生和作为他的份额分配给他的事物;他不是经常、但也不是无需为了普遍利益来考虑别人的言行和思想。由于唯一属于他的是他为自己的行为做出决定,他不断地思考什么是从事物的总体中分配给他的,怎样使自己的行为正直,说服自己相信分配给他的一份是好的。因为那分配给各人的命运是由各人把握的,命运也把握着他。他也记住每个理性动物都是他的同胞,记住关心所有人是符合人的本性的,一个人不应当听从所有人的意见,而只是听从那些明白地按照本性生活的人们的意见。但是对于那些不如此生活的人,他总是记住他们在家是什么样的人,离家是什么样的人;白天是什么样的人,晚上是什么样的人;记住他们做什么工作,他们和什么人在一起过一种不纯洁的生活。相应地,他就一点也不看重来自这一类人的赞扬,因为这类人甚至对自己也是不满的。
Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some object of common utility. For thou losest the opportunity of doing something else when thou hast such thoughts as these, What is such a person doing, and why, and what is he saying, and what is he thinking of, and what is he contriving, and whatever else of the kind makes us wander away from the observation of our own ruling power. We ought then to check in the series of our thoughts everything that is without a purpose and useless, but most of all the over-curious feeling and the malignant; and a man should use himself to think of those things only about which if one should suddenly ask, What hast thou now in thy thoughts? With perfect openness thou mightest, immediately answer, This or That; so that from thy words it should be plain that everything in thee is simple and benevolent, and such as befits a social animal, and one that cares not for thoughts about pleasure or sensual enjoyments at all, nor has any rivalry or envy and suspicion, or anything else for which thou wouldst blush if thou shouldst say that thou hadst it in thy mind. For the man who is such and no longer delays being among the number of the best, is like a priest and minister of the gods, using too the deity which is planted within him, which makes the man uncontaminated by pleasure, unharmed by any pain, untouched by any insult, feeling no wrong, a fighter in the noblest fight, one who cannot be overpowered by any passion, dyed deep with justice, accepting with all his soul everything which happens and is assigned to him as his portion; and not often, nor yet without great necessity and for the general interest, imagining what another says, or does, or thinks. For it is only what belongs to himself that he makes the matter for his activity; and he constantly thinks of that which is allotted to himself out of the sum total of things, and he makes his own acts fair, and he is persuaded that his own portion is good. For the lot which is assigned to each man is carried along with him and carries him along with it. And he remembers also that every rational animal is his kinsman, and that to care for all men is according to man's nature; and a man should hold on to the opinion not of all, but of those only who confessedly live according to nature. But as to those who live not so, he always bears in mind what kind of men they are both at home and from home, both by night and by day, and what they are, and with what men they live an impure life. Accordingly, he does not value at all the praise which comes from such men, since they are not even satisfied with themselves.
Id quod relinquitur vitae noli conterere in cogitationibus de aliis, nisi si ad communem utititatem spectas. Nam profecto alio negotio privaris hoc est, cogitans, quid ille agat et quam ob rem, quid dicat, quid cogitet, quid moliatur et quae alia sunt hujusmodi, quae faciunt, ut ab animi principatu diligenter observando divageris. Oportet igitur vanitatem quoque et temeritatem in serie cogitationum declinare, omnium autem maxime curiositatem et malitiam, teque adsuefacere, ut ea tantum cogites, de quibus interrogatus, quid nunc mediteris, libere statim respondeas "hoc vel illud," ita ut ex iis confestim appareat, omnia in te esse simplicia et benevola et animalis communi utilitati prospicientis, despicientis cogitationes, quae voluptatem omninove oblectationem spectant, itemque aemulationem quandam aut invidentiam aut suspicionem aut aliud quidlibet, quod si animo te agitasse fatearis, pudore te suffundi oporteat. Nam profecto vir talis, non amplius differens, quin in optimorum numero sit, sacerdos quasi quidam est et minister Deorum, numine quoque, quod in pectore gerit, familiariter utens, quod hominem praestat incontaminatum omnibus voluptatibus, omni dolore illaesum, nulli contumeliae obnoxium, omnisque malitiae sensu carentem, certaminis maximi, ne ab ulla animi perturbatione prosternatur, luctatorem, justitiae colore bene tinctum, ex toto animo quae eveniunt sibique tribuuntur amplectentem, non saepe neque sine magna et ad publicam utilitatem spectante necessitate cogitantem, quid tandem alius loquatur aut agat aut meditetur; sola enim sua sunt, in quibus operam collocat atque ea, quae sibi ex universi natura destinantur, assidue contemplatur, atque illa quidem honesta praestat, haec autem bona esse habet persuasum: quae enim cuique adsignata est sors, convenienter infertur et infert. Meminit autem, cognatione contineri quidquid rationis sit particeps, et omnibus hominibus prospicere naturae hominis esse consentaneum; gloriae autem non ei, quae ab omnibus proficiscatur, esse studendum, sed ei tantum, quae ab iis, qui naturae convenienter degant. Qui non ita vivunt quales sint domi et foris, noctu et interdiu, quales cum qualibus volutentur, semper memor est; proinde nihili pendit laudem ab iis profectam, qui ne sibi quidem ipsi placent.
Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others
Book Three, Meditations of Marcus Aurelius