Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

i8o MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK
all else, but in handling the bridle it is more
efficient than the right.: that comes of practice.
7 Think what a man should be in body and
soul, when death overtakes him : think of the
shortness of life, of the unfathomable eternity
behind and before, of the weakness of all things
material.
8 Strip off the husks, and look at the underlying
causes ; look at the tendencies of action ; at pain,
pleasure, death, reputation ; at man,
quieter ;
his own dis-
see how every contravention comes from
within, not from without ; how the view taken is
everything.
9 In applying principles to action be like the
boxer 1 not the swordsman. The swordsman lays
by his sword and takes it up again ; but the
boxer's hand is always there, he has nothing to do
but to clench it.
10 Look at things as they are, discriminating
matter, cause, and tendency.
11 How great is man's prerogative to do nothing
but what god approves, and to accept all that god
assigns.
12 In the order of nature, we must not find
1
Strictly " "
pancratiast
a mixture of boxing and wrestling.