Meditations VIII.56

To my power of choice⁶⁰ the power of choice of my neighbour is as much a matter of indifference as is his vital breath and his flesh. For however much we may have been made for one another, yet our ruling Reason is in each case master in its own house. Else might my neighbour’s wickedness become my bane; and this was not God’s will, that another might not have my unhappiness in his keeping.⁶¹

• 60.Not distinguishable from the ruling Reason.
• 61.Seneca’s Epistles 70, about the middle: nemo nisi vitio suo miser est.

  Seneca’s Latin, in translation: “no one is wretched except by his own fault.”