Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

xi TO HIMSELF 171
measure of its power. Anger, like grief, is a
mark of weakness ; both mean being wounded,
and wincing.
Tenth and lastly a gift, so please you, from
Apollo leader of the Choir. Not to expect the
worthless to do wrong, is idiotcy : it is asking an
impossibility. To allow them to wrong others,
and to claim exemption for yourself, is graceless
and tyrannical.
There are four moods to which your Inner Self 19
is liable, against which you must constantly be
upon the watch, and as soon as detected suppress
with the appropriate comment. Either,
this is a
needless fancy : or, this is anti-social : or, this does
not come from your own heart and not to speak
from one's heart is a moral inconsequence. Or,
fourthly, you will never forgive yourself;
for such
a feeling implies subjection and abasement of the
diviner element in you to the perishable and less
honourable portion, the body
apprehensions.
By nature breath and all the igneous
and its coarser
element 20
in your composition ascend ; yet in obedience to
the order of things, they accept subordination and
keep their place in the compound. Conversely,