Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

iv TO HIMSELF 35
when the understanding has once possessed itself
and recognised its own prerogative, it is not bound
up any more with the pneuma-current,
rough, and recur to all that you
smooth or
have learned and
accepted regarding pain and pleasure. Or does
some bubble of fame torment you ? Then fix
your gaze on swift oblivion, on the gulf of infinity
this way and that, on the empty rattle of plaudits
and the undiscriminating fickleness of professed
applause, on the narrow range within which you
are circumscribed. The whole earth is but a
point, your habitation but a tiny
and on the earth how many
nook thereon :
are there who will
praise you, and what are they worth ? Well then,
remember to retire within that little field 1 of self.
Above all do not strain or strive, but be free, and
look at things as a man, as a human being, as a
citizen, as a mortal. Foremost among the maxims
to which you can bend your glance, be these two
first, things cannot touch the soul, but stand with-
out it stationary ;
tumult can arise only from views
within ourselves : secondly, all things you see,
in a moment change and will be no more ; ay,
think of all the changes in which you have
1 See x. 23, note.