How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter)
Quote #7
Appearances: to the jaundiced honey seems bitter, to those bitten by rabid dogs water is a terror, to little boys a ball is a joy. Why then am I angry? Or do you think that false representation has less effect than bile in the jaundiced or poison in the hydrophobic? (6.57)
Marcus realizes that the state of the mind can affect the way it experiences reality, which reinforces the concept that reality itself is subjective or negotiable. He's also working on his anger response here, presumably because he has been lied to or duped by someone or something false. He addresses his own response—because that's what he can actually control—to get himself right again, calling "false representation" a poison no less potent than a biological agent.
Quote #8
Let any external thing that so wishes happen to those parts of me which can be affected by its happening—and they, if they wish, can complain. I myself am not yet harmed, unless I judge this occurrence something bad: and I can refuse to do so. (7.14)
Marcus is speaking here of partitioning his mind off from externals so that it isn't harmed by the things happening to the body. This dude's not very loyal to his poor body, which he considers inferior, like a millstone around his figurative neck. Here, he basically says that the body will have to fend for itself. If it's irritated or in pain, it can protest all it wants—if it can. (Which it can't, without the mind to help it.)
Quote #9
Remember, though, that you are by nature born to bear all that your own judgement can decide bearable, or tolerate in action, if you represent it to yourself as benefit or duty. (10.3)
Marcus tells himself that people are never given more than they can bear (you've heard that one before, right?). He means it in the most literal of senses: if he's given more than he can handle, he'll simply drop dead. That's comfort, Stoic style. But there's another side to that truism: you can bear anything you decide to bear. Marcus talks about refraining from judgment—from deciding whether or not you've been injured or wronged—so that the mind can think clearly and not have an emotional response. If the rational mind gets a chance to take over, it will be able to turn the wrong into something usable, thereby changing its evaluation of what has happened.