8. When you have assumed these names, good, modest, true, rational, a man of equanimity, and magnanimous, take care that you do not change these names; and if you should lose them, quickly return to them.
And remember that the term Rational was intended to signify a discriminating attention to every several thing and freedom from negligence; and that Equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of the things which are assigned to you by the common nature; and that Magnanimity is the elevation of the intelligent part above the pleasurable or painful sensations of the flesh, and above that poor thing called fame, and death, and all such things.
If, then, you maintainest yourself in the possession of these names, without desiring to be called by these names by others, you will be another person and will enter on another life.
For to continue to be such as you have hitherto been, and to be tom in pieces and defiled in such a life, is the character of a very stupid man and one overfond of his life, and like those half-devoured fighters with wild beasts, who though covered with wounds and gore, still intreat to be kept to the following day, though they will be exposed in the same state to the same claws and bites.
Therefore fix yourself in the possession of these few names: and if you are able to abide in them, abide as if you wast removed to certain islands of the Happy.
But if you shall perceive that you fall out of them and do not maintain your hold, go courageously into some nook where you shall maintain them, or even depart at once from life, not in passion, but with simplicity and freedom and modesty, after doing this one laudable thing at least in your life, to have gone out of it thus.
In order, however, to the remembrance of these names, it will greatly help you if you remember the gods, and that they wish not to be flattered, but wish all reasonable beings to be made like themselves; and if you remember that what does the work of a fig-tree is a fig-tree, and that what does the work of a dog is a dog, and that what does the work of a bee is a bee, and that what does the work of a man is a man.
Book: Meditations
Subtitle: The classic from Marcus Aurelius.
Author: Marcus Aurelius
Chapter: Book Ten
Chapter Subtitle: Will you then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked, more manifest than the body which surrounds thee? Will you never enjoy an affectionate and contented disposition?
Location: Chapter 10, Section 8
Content:
8. When you have assumed these names, good, modest, true, rational, a man of equanimity, and magnanimous, take care that you do not change these names; and if you should lose them, quickly return to them.
And remember that the term Rational was intended to signify a discriminating attention to every several thing and freedom from negligence; and that Equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of the things which are assigned to you by the common nature; and that Magnanimity is the elevation of the intelligent part above the pleasurable or painful sensations of the flesh, and above that poor thing called fame, and death, and all such things.
If, then, you maintainest yourself in the possession of these names, without desiring to be called by these names by others, you will be another person and will enter on another life.
For to continue to be such as you have hitherto been, and to be tom in pieces and defiled in such a life, is the character of a very stupid man and one overfond of his life, and like those half-devoured fighters with wild beasts, who though covered with wounds and gore, still intreat to be kept to the following day, though they will be exposed in the same state to the same claws and bites.
Therefore fix yourself in the possession of these few names: and if you are able to abide in them, abide as if you wast removed to certain islands of the Happy.
But if you shall perceive that you fall out of them and do not maintain your hold, go courageously into some nook where you shall maintain them, or even depart at once from life, not in passion, but with simplicity and freedom and modesty, after doing this one laudable thing at least in your life, to have gone out of it thus.
In order, however, to the remembrance of these names, it will greatly help you if you remember the gods, and that they wish not to be flattered, but wish all reasonable beings to be made like themselves; and if you remember that what does the work of a fig-tree is a fig-tree, and that what does the work of a dog is a dog, and that what does the work of a bee is a bee, and that what does the work of a man is a man.