Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius
13. Just as it is with the members in those bodies which are united in
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one, so it is with rational beings which exist separate, for they have been constituted for one co-operation. And the perception of this will be more apparent to thee if thou often sayest to thyself that I am a member [Greek: melos] of the system of rational beings. But if [using the letter r] thou sayest that thou art a part [Greek: meros], thou dost not yet love men from thy heart; beneficence does not yet delight thee for its own sake;[A] thou still doest it barely as a thing of propriety, and not yet as doing good to thyself.
[A] I have used Gataker's conjecture [Greek: katalêktikôs] instead of the common reading [Greek: katalêptikôs]: compare iv. 20; ix. 42.
14. Let there fall externally what will on the parts which can feel the effects of this fall. For those parts which have felt will complain, if they choose. But I, unless I think that what has happened is an evil, am not injured. And it is in my power not to think so.
15. Whatever any one does or says, I must be good; just as if the gold, or the emerald, or the purple, were always saying this. Whatever any one does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color.
