How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter)
Quote #7
... and so welcome all that happens to you, even if it seems rather cruel, because its purpose leads to the health of the universe and the prosperity and success of Zeus. He would not bring this on anyone, if it did not also bring advantage to the Whole: no more than any given natural principle brings anything inappropriate to what it governs. (5.8.4)
Marcus knows there's no crying in the game of life. He believes that part of man's duty is to take his lot in life—no matter how crummy—and leave off whining about it. However bad it is, the gods must have had a reason for your misery. It's all part of a larger plan that is somehow invisible to the poor shmoe suffering through it. You've heard all this before. But here's the added bonus: human suffering is not purposeless. In some way, it has something to do with keeping the universe on an even keel. Marcus does not say exactly what that is (he doesn't actually know). But then again, he was an emperor. It doesn't get much more privileged than that.
Quote #8
Existence is like a river in ceaseless flow, its actions a constant succession of change, it causes innumerable in their variety: scarcely anything stands still, even what is most immediate. (5.23)
The image of the life as a river flowing endlessly on seems clichéd to us today (and to be honest, it really was already in Marcus's time, too). But it's also particularly apt. Marcus uses the image not only to explain the constant motion of time, but also to explain the movement of things and people through time. As we ride down that river, the objects of life flow by so quickly that we can hardly get a read on things before they disappear. Transience is the hallmark of earthly existence. It teaches Marcus not to put too much value either on things of beauty or on the things that make him miserable.
Quote #9
All things are meshed together, and a sacred bond unites them. Hardly a single thing is alien to the rest: ordered together in their places they together make up the one order of the universe. There is one universe out of all things, one god pervading all things, one substance, one law, one common reason in all intelligent beings, and one truth... (7.9)
Unity is way important to Marcus's conception of the universe. Without it, there is unending chaos and very little purpose for existence. He often debates this with himself (is the universe a pile of atoms and random chance, or is it an ordered, unified system?); he chooses to believe that humanity is part of a larger Whole, a magnificent structure that is mirrored in a flawed way by human institutions on earth. Divinity has a hand in creating this structure, the first cause of all created things. God sets all things in motion and keeps everything working through his benevolent reason, which he places in small amounts in each human being.