Run the Short Road
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Ἐπὶ τὴν σύντομον ἀεὶ τρέχε· σύντομος δὲ ἡ κατὰ φύσιν, ὥστε κατὰ τὸ ὑγιέστατον πᾶν λέγειν καὶ πράσσειν. ἀπαλλάσσει γὰρ ἡ τοιαύτη πρόθεσις κόπων καὶ στραγγείας καὶ πάσης οἰκονομίας καὶ κομψείας.
Run always on the short road; and the short road is the one according to nature, so as to say and do everything in the soundest way. For such a resolve frees one from toils and dawdling and all contrivance and affectation.
The close of Book 4: always take the short road — and the short road is the one that follows nature, saying and doing everything in the soundest way. Such a resolve frees you from toil, hesitation, calculation, and every affectation.
Book 4 ends on a maxim about directness. τρέχε ἐπὶ τὴν σύντομον — "run the short way," take the cut-short, direct route — and Marcus immediately identifies which route that is: the one κατὰ φύσιν, according to nature. The shortest path through any situation is not the cleverest or the most cautious but the one that simply answers to what the situation and one’s own rational nature require: to say and do everything κατὰ τὸ ὑγιέστατον, "in the healthiest way," the soundest and most wholesome, without detour. Sanity, for Marcus, is a kind of economy — the straight line between a person and the right response.
The reward is spelled out in the last clause, and it reads almost as relief. Such a πρόθεσις, such a settled resolve to go straight, "sets one free" (ἀπαλλάσσει) from four burdens named in a rising list: κόπων, the toil and weariness of overcomplicated effort; στραγγείας, the dribbling hesitation of the person who cannot commit; πάσης οἰκονομίας, all the calculated managing and angling for effect; and κομψείας, the affected cleverness that dresses things up. Each of these is a way of taking the long road — of substituting maneuver for honesty, performance for action. To decide once for the short, natural, sound way is to be rid of the whole exhausting apparatus of indirection. It is a fitting close to a book so preoccupied with the brevity of life: since time is short (4.17, 4.47, 4.50), do not squander it on the long way round. Go straight, speak plainly, act soundly — and be free.
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Meditations 4.51 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/meditations-greek/4.51/