Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius
11. If thou art able, correct by teaching those who do wrong; but if
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thou canst not, remember that indulgence is given to thee for this purpose. And the gods, too, are indulgent to such persons; and for some purposes they even help them to get health, wealth, reputation; so kind they are. And it is in thy power also; or say, who hinders thee?
12. Labor not as one who is wretched, nor yet as one who would be pitied or admired; but direct thy will to one thing only—to put thyself in motion and to check thyself, as the social reason requires.
13. To-day I have got out of all trouble, or rather I have cast out all trouble, for it was not outside, but within and in my opinions.
14. All things are the same, familiar in experience, and ephemeral in time, and worthless in the matter. Everything now is just as it was in the time of those whom we have buried.
15. Things stand outside of us, themselves by themselves, neither knowing aught of themselves, nor expressing any judgment. What is it, then, which does judge about them? The ruling faculty.
16. Not in passivity but in activity lie the evil and the good of the rational social animal, just as his virtue and his vice lie not in passivity but in activity.[A]
[A] Virtutis omnis laus in actione consistit.—Cicero, De Off., 1. 6.
17. For the stone which has been thrown up it is no evil to come down, nor indeed any good to have been carried up (viii. 20).
18. Penetrate inwards into men's leading principles, and thou wilt see what judges thou art afraid of, and what kind of judges they are of themselves.
19. All things are changing: and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction, and the whole universe too.
20. It is thy duty to leave another man's wrongful act there where it is (vii. 29; ix. 38).
