Meditations XI.19

Against four perversions of the ruling Reason thou shouldest above all keep unceasing watch, and, once detected, wholly abjure them,⁶⁵ saying in each case to thyself: This thought is not necessary;⁶⁶ this is destructive of human fellowship; this could be no genuine utterance from the heart.—And not to speak from the heart, what is it but a contradiction in terms?—The fourth case is that of self-reproach,⁶⁷ for that is an admission that the divine part of thee has been worsted by and acknowledges its inferiority to the body, the baser and mortal partner, and to its gross notions.

• 65.See xi. 16.
• 66.See iv. 24.
• 67.v. 36; viii. 10. Compare Fronto’s letter to Marcus as Caesar, iv. 13, where Marcus reproaches himself when 19 years old for backwardness in philosophy.