Marcus Aurelius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
If you find something better than justice, truth, self-control, courage — better, in short, than a mind content with itself, content in this: that it acts according to right reason, and content with what fate assigns you without your choosing — if, I say, you see something better than this, then turn to it with your whole soul and enjoy that greatest good you have found. But if nothing appears better than the guiding spirit seated within you — which has brought its own impulses under its own control, which examines its impressions, which has torn itself free, as Socrates used to say, from the promptings of the senses, which has subordinated itself to the gods and looks after the interests of mankind — if you find everything else smaller and cheaper next to this, then give ground to nothing else. Once you tilt and lean toward anything else, you will no longer be able to give undistracted preference to that good which is properly and truly your own. Nothing of a different kind — praise from the many, office, wealth, the enjoyment of pleasures — has any right to set itself up against the good that belongs to a rational, civic being. All these things, even if for a while they seem to fit, suddenly gain the mastery and carry you off. So choose, I say, simply and freely, what is better, and hold to it. "But the advantageous is what is better." If you mean advantageous to you as a rational being, hold to that; if as an animal, then say so plainly, and guard your judgment without arrogance — only make sure your examination is sound.