The Text
Meditations VII.1
What is vice? A familiar sight enough. So in everything that befalls have the thought ready: This is a familiar sight. Look up, look down, everywhere thou wilt find the same things, whereof histories ancient, medieval, and modern are full; and full of them at this day are cities and houses. There is no new thing under the sun.1 Everything is stereotyped, everything fleeting.
- 1.Ecclesiastes i. 9. Compare also Justin Martyr’s Apology i. 57, addressed to Pius and Marcus.