Meditations II.16
The soul of man does wrong to itself then most of all, when it makes itself, as far as it can do so, an imposthume and as it were a malignant growth in the Universe. For to grumble at anything that happens is a rebellion against Nature, in some part of which are bound up the natures of all other things. And the soul wrongs itself then again, when it turns away from any man or even opposes him with intent to do him harm, as is the case with those who are angry. It does wrong to itself, thirdly, when it is overcome by pleasure26 or pain. Fourthly, when it assumes a mask, and in act or word is insincere or untruthful. Fifthly, when it directs some act or desire of its own towards no mark, and expends its energy on any thing whatever aimlessly and unadvisedly, whereas even the most trifling things should be done with reference to the end in view. Now the end for rational beings is to submit themselves to the reason and law of that archetypal city and polity27—the Universe.
- 26.Compare Euripides, Fragment 107: ὅταν γλυκείας ἡδονῆς ἥσσων τις ᾖ.
Euripides was the last of the three great Athenian tragedians; many of his plays survive only in fragments quoted by later writers. The line, in translation: “whenever someone is overcome by sweet pleasure.”
- 27.Aristides, Panegyric at Cyzicus § 427 (Jebb’s edition), ὁ γὰρ λογισμὸς αὐτῶν (Marcus and Lucius) θεῖος καὶ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἄνωθεν ἔχων τὸ παράδειγμα, καὶ πρὸς ἐκείνην ὁρῶν τὴν πολιτείαν.
The Greek, from Aristides’ speech at Cyzicus, reads: “For their reasoning is divine, and truly has its pattern from above, and looks toward that polity.” “Their” refers to Marcus and Lucius Verus as joint emperors.