Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

vi TO HIMSELF 79
I am of body and soul. To the body all 32
things are indifferent ; it has no power to make
differences. To the understanding all things are
indifferent, excepting
its own activities. But its
own activities are all within its own control :
Moreover, even of these, it is concerned only with
the present ; future or past activities are at the
moment themselves indifferent.
No pain of hand or of foot is contrary to 33
nature, so long as the foot is doing foot's work,
and the hand hand's. So too to man, as man,
no pain is contrary to nature, so long as he is
doing man's work. If it violates nature, for him
it ceases to exist and is no evil for him.
What rare pleasures please robbers, rakes, 34
parricides, tyrants !
See how common craftsmen accommodate 35
themselves to some extent to ignorant employers,
but all the same hold fast to the principles of their
craft and decline to depart from them. Shame
on us, that the architect and the doctor should
have more respect to the principles of their craft,
than man to his, which he shares with the gods.
In the universe Asia and Europe are but 36
corners ; ocean a drop ; Athos a grain ; the span