Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

BOOK x MARCUS ANTONINUS 143
their being their unity and their scope,
and into
which they are received at dissolution for the pro-
duction of new forms of being like themselves ?
Wilt thou be such one day, my soul, having
attained such fellowship with gods and men, as to
make no more complaint at all, nor be found of
them in any fault ?
Take heed to what your personal nature craves, 2
knowing that you are solely at nature's disposition ;
comply with it and do it, unless it involves injury
to your animal nature. But correspondently,
give heed to each craving
of the animal nature
and accept it in full, unless it involves injury to
your nature as a rational being
: and the rational
is ipso facto social. Apply these criteria to life,
and do so without fuss.
Whatever befalls, one of two things is true : 3
either you have strength to bear it, or you have
not. If what befalls is within your strength, do
not lose patience, but use your strength to bear
it : if it is beyond your strength, again lose
not patience : in destroying you it will cease to
exist. Yet remember that you have strength
to bear everything, which your own view of
the case can render endurable and bearable,