Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Quotes on Imagination & Visualization (3 Quotes)

A person's life is dyed with the color of his imagination.

Is your cucumber bitter Throw it away. Are there briars in your path Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world' neither intolerable nor everlasting if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it)or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility....

In every pain let this thought be present, that there is no dishonor in it, nor does it make the governing intelligence worse. Indeed, in the case of most pains, let this remark of Epicurus aid thee, that pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it)or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility, and not to think that pain is an evil.... It will suffice thee to remember as concerning pain ... that the mind may, by stopping all manner of commerce and sympathy with the body, still retain its own tranquility.