Angry
Marcus Aurelius on revenge: “not to become like unto them”
For when you want to hit back, in whatever way.
“The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.”
In plain words
Marcus wrote this in private notes to himself, as a reminder, not a lecture. His point: if you answer harm with the same harm, you’ve picked up their habits. Not becoming like them is the only kind of revenge he counts.
Worth knowing
The wording differs a lot between translations. This is Casaubon’s from 1634, which is why it sounds old-fashioned. Even the section number changes depending on the edition.
If something of your own is sitting heavy — /talk is a quieter room.
The quote is checked against the original text. The plain-words note is an AI-assisted draft. How AI is used