“The recognition that I needed to train and discipline my character. Not to be sidetracked by my interest in rhetoric. Not to write treatises on abstract questions, or deliver moralizing little sermons, or compose imaginary descriptions of The Simple Life or The Man Who Lives Only for Others.”
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
__________
“Now as Pliny says, each man is a good education to himself, provided he has the capacity to spy on himself from close up. What I write here is not my teaching, but my study; it is not a lesson for others, but for me.”
– Michel de Montaigne, Of Practice
__________
I am going to try to write like Marcus Aurelius. I have modest goals: to write like a Roman Emperor.
I am going to try to write like Michel de Montaigne. Again, my modest emulation of a landed aristocrat.
How can I possibly be so bold?
Because they did not write from a point of status.
They wrote for themselves.
If I can remember that all the writing I do here is for me, a place to figure things out, I will do ok.
Marcus Aurelius did not have publication in mind.
There was no exercise in reframing his reputation as a thoughtful philosopher rather than an expansionist warrior.
He wrote for himself.
We are lucky that these thoughts were recorded. And more so because they were preserved.
But the power is in their self reflection. Writing as a companion for our lives.
It’s a reminder to get on with my days: the practicalities of work family and leisure.
A reminder that this writing isn’t the point of living, merely a necessary exercise in reflection and clarification.
My writing is fortunate in having a built in audience: me.
I make sure I read everything that I write.
Each sentence I get closer to knowing who I am.
My number one fan.
Conversations With Quotations 