Marcus Aurelius Quote on the Impressions: The Mind's Power

Quote

"The mind is undisturbed by the impressions unless it assents to them: wipe out the impression, stop the pulling of the strings, and the mind is its own master." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Books 5 and 11 (2nd century CE)

Author

Marcus Aurelius (121–180 CE) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 CE and the last of the great Stoic philosophers. His Meditations are the private record of his practice of the discipline of the impressions.

Source

The quotation gathers the passages on the impressions from Books 5 and 11 of the Meditations. The translation follows Gregory Hays's Modern Library edition (2002).

Context

The meditation belongs to the discipline of assent, the Stoic practice of the impressions. The impressions come unbidden — the fear, the anger, the craving arise as representations — but the assent is in our power. Marcus practiced the discipline daily: the emperor's mind was assailed by the impressions of the day's events, and the practice was the refusal of the assent — the wiping out of the impression before it became a judgment. The image of the strings is from the puppet: the passions pull the strings, and the mind that has refused the assent is no longer pulled.

Meaning

The quotation states the Stoic discipline of the mind with complete clarity. "The mind is undisturbed by the impressions unless it assents to them" — the foundation: the disturbance is not in the impression but in the assent — the same event disturbs the person who assents and passes over the one who does not. "Wipe out the impression" — the practice: the immediate refusal — the impression is seen as an impression, not as a fact, and it is dismissed. "Stop the pulling of the strings" — the image: the passions are the strings, and the mind that has refused the assent is no longer pulled. "The mind is its own master" — the conclusion: the mastery is the freedom — the mind that controls its own assents controls its own state, and the mastery is the goal of the practice.

Related Wisdom

The quotation belongs to the Stoic discipline of prosoche and the practice of the inner citadel. Its account of the assent connects to Epictetus's discipline of the impressions and to the wider Stoic therapy of the passions. The teaching is among the most quoted in the Stoic wisdom tradition.