Meditations XII.27
Let thy mind dwell continually on those who have shewn unmeasured resentment at things, who have been conspicuous above others for honours or disasters or enmities or any sort of special lot. Then consider, Where is all that now?53 Smoke and dust and a legend or not a legend even.54 Take any instance of the kind—Fabius Catullinus in the country, Lusius Lupus in his gardens, Stertinius at Baiae, Tiberius in Capreae, and Velius Rufus—in fact a craze for any thing whatever arrogantly55 indulged. How worthless is everything so inordinately desired! How much more worthy of a philosopher is it for a man without any artifice to shew himself in the sphere assigned to him just, temperate, and a follower of the Gods. For the conceit that is conceited of its freedom from conceit is the most insufferable of all.56
- 53.See vi. 47; viii. 25; x. 31.
- 54.Compare Persius, Satires v. 132: cinis et manes et fabula fies.
Persius was a Roman satirist of Stoic outlook; the Latin, in translation: “you will become ashes, a shade, and a tale.”
- 55.For οἴησις see Epictetus’s Discourses i. 8, § 6.
Oiēsis, “conceit.”
- 56.See the story of Plato and Diogenes, Diogenes Laertius, Life of Diogenes vi. 2, § 4.
Diogenes, trampling on Plato’s carpets, said, “I trample on Plato’s pride”; Plato replied, “With another kind of pride, Diogenes.”