Simple Stoic Advice
Premeditatio Malorum
Premeditatio Malorum
The beautiful thing about Stoic philosophy is the advice contained within it is just as applicable today as it was when it was first written all those many years ago. We can learn a great deal from interpreting the advice provided and using it to our advantage as we go throughout our own lives.
Today’s quote comes to us courtesy of Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.1:
Quote
“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own — not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.”
Advice
One of the most famous quotes by any of the Stoics, Marcus’s advice to himself above conquers two things at once: 1) it reminds him that each and every day, he will face adversity in the form of people, and 2) that we (as humans) need the assistance and help of others, and that it is within our nature to work in unison, rather than independently.
The first half of the quote specifically deals with the exercise of premeditatio malorum, or, the anticipation of adversity. It is about preparing oneself for what may lie ahead. Marcus knows he will face adversity amongst those he will come in contact with. By mentally preparing ahead of time, if (or when) the adversity arises, he will be as prepared for it as he can be.
Seneca himself was famous for anticipating adversity. In his work De Ira, known today as On Anger (recent translation by Princeton University Press as How to Keep Your Cool), wrote:
“Everything might happen; anticipate everything. Even in good there is something rather unsavory. Human nature contains treacherous thoughts, ungrateful ones, greedy and wicked ones. When you assess the character of one person, consider that of the populace. Your greatest fear lies in the same place as your greatest joy. When everything seems serene, the dangers are still present, only sleeping. Always suppose that something offensive to you is going to arise.”
The second half of the quote is a reminder that while he may be agitated or annoyed by individuals, we are nonetheless part of a community and thus, are dependent upon each other and “work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower”
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