Meditations X.35

The sound eye should see all there is to be seen, but should not say: I want what is green only. For that is characteristic of a disordered eye. And the sound hearing and smell should be equipped for all that is to be heard or smelled. And the sound digestion should act towards all nutriment as a mill towards the grist which it was formed to grind. So should the sound mind be ready for all that befalls. But the mind that says: Let my children be safe!⁶³ Let all applaud my every act! is but as an eye that looks for green things or as teeth that look for soft things.

• 63.i. 8; vii. 41; viii. 49; ix. 40; xi. 34. Marcus was intensely fond of his children. Galen describes (Kühn’s edition, volume 14 page 3) his anxiety about Commodus; compare also Fronto’s letter to Marcus as Caesar, iv. 12.

  Commodus was Marcus’s son, co-emperor from 177 and sole emperor from 180 until his assassination in 192.