Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

vii TO HIMSELF 91
is to be good ; just as gold or emerald or
purple for ever says, Whatever any one else does
or says, my duty is to be emerald and keep my
proper hue.
The Inner Self does not agitate itself does 16
not, for instance, terrify
itself or excite its own
desires. If some one else can terrify or vex it, let
him. It will never itself induce such moods by
self-assumption.
The body must take thought for
its own hurts, as best it can, and if hurt say so ;
the soul, to which belong terror, vexation or any
assumption of the kind, refuses hurt ; you cannot
wrest it to any such judgment. The Inner Self is
self-complete, subject to none but self-created needs,
and free accordingly from every perturbation or
contravention, except
action.
such as arise from its own
Happiness literally, god within, or
1
good.
What are you about here, Impression, you
deceiver ? Be off, sir as you came : I will none
of you.
* You have come as an old friend/ you
say ? Well, peace be with you : only, begone !
Does change terrify you ? Yet what can come 18
1 A play on the derivation of the Greek word Eudaimonia, and
untranslatable.
17