Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

BOOK V
IN the morning, when you feel loth to rise, fall 1
back upon the thought '
I am rising for man's
work. Why make a grievance of setting about
that for which I was born, and for sake of which
I have been brought into the world ? Is the end
of my existence to lie snug
keep warm ?
' '
in the blankets and
It is more pleasant so.'
'
Is it
for pleasure you were made ? not for doing,
and for action ? Look at the plants, the sparrows,
the ants, spiders, bees, all doing their business,
helping to weld the order of the world. And
will you refuse man's part ? and not run the
way of nature's ordering
have rest.' 'True, yet
? ' '
Well, but I must
to rest too nature sets
bounds, no less than to eating and to drinking : in
spite of which you pass the bounds, you transgress