Meditations III.5

Do that thou doest neither unwillingly nor selfishly nor without examination nor against the grain. Dress not thy thought in too fine a garb. Be not a man of superfluous words or superfluous deeds. Moreover let the god that is in thee¹⁶ be lord of a living creature, that is manly, and of full age, and concerned with statecraft, and a Roman, and a ruler, who hath taken his post as one who awaits the signal of recall from life in all readiness, needing no oath nor any man as his voucher. Be thine the cheery face and independence of help¹⁷ from without and independence of such ease as others can give. It needs then to stand, and not be set, upright.¹⁸

• 16.See ii. 13. 17; iii. 6.
• 17.But see vii. 7.
• 18.See i. 15, § 3; vii. 12.