Meditations 7.15

Reflections on Marcus Aurelius

Whatever anyone does or says, I must be good, just as if the gold, or the emerald, or the purple were always saying this:

Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my color.

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 7.15 (tr Long)

If the philosophy of Stoicism is asking me to live according to Nature, it is asking me to always be completely hum…