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Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

§ Section 46

Book Four

4:46

Book Subtitle: The classic from Marcus Aurelius.

Book Description: The personal notes of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. This book has influenced many throughout history from students to statesmen. It's an inside look at a brilliant and thoughtful man working on living well. The emperor and philosopher's thoughts are crucial to understand for any Stoic seeking to do their best in a complex world.

Chapter Subtitle: That which rules within, when it is according to nature, is so affected with respect to the events which happen, that it always easily adapts itself to that which is and is presented to it.

46. Always remember the saying of Heraclitus, that the death of earth is to become water, and the death of water is to become air, and the death of air is to become fire, and reversely.

And think too of him who forgets whither the way leads, and that men quarrel with that with which they are most constantly in communion, the reason which governs the universe; and the things which daily meet with seem to them strange: and consider that we ought not to act and speak as if we were asleep, for even in sleep we seem to act and speak; and that we ought not, like children who learn from their parents, simply to act and speak as we have been taught.