Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

v TO HIMSELF 53
I walk the ways of nature,
until I fall and 4
shall find rest, exhaling my last breath into that
element from which day by day I draw it, and
falling upon that wherefrom my father stored my
seed of life, my mother the blood, my nurse the
milk ; which for these many years provides my
daily meat and drink, supports my tread, bears
each indignity of daily use.
You have no special keenness of wit. So be 5
of which
it yet there are many other qualities
I have no gift that way.' Do
you cannot say, *
but practise them : they are wholly in your power ;
be sincere, dignified, industrious, serious, not
too critical or too exacting, but considerate and
frank, with due reserves in action, speech, and
accent of authority.
See how many good qualities
you might exhibit, for which you cannot plead
natural incapacity or unfitness, and how you fail
to rise to your opportunities.
When you murmur,
when you are mean, when you flatter, when you
complain of ill-health, when you are self-satisfied
and give yourself airs and indulge one humour
after another, is it forced on you by
natural gifts ? Heavens ! You
lack of
might long since
have been delivered from all that. It is only after