Marcus Aurelius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
To the aids already mentioned, let one more be added: always make a definition or a sketch of whatever presents itself to your mind, so as to see it as it truly is in its bare essence, whole, taken apart part by part, and to say to yourself both its own proper name and the names of the elements it is made of and into which it will dissolve. For nothing produces greatness of mind so much as being able to test methodically and truthfully everything that presents itself in life, and always to look at things in such a way that you take in at once what sort of use each thing serves in what sort of universe, what value it has in relation to the whole, and what value in relation to man — man as a citizen of the highest city, of which all other cities are like households. What is this thing that is now producing an impression on me, what is it made of, how long is it naturally suited to last, and what virtue is needed to meet it — gentleness, say, or courage, honesty, simplicity, self-sufficiency, or one of the others? So for each thing you must say: this comes from god; this comes by the interweaving and spun-together thread of fate, by such a coincidence and chance; and this from a fellow member of my kind, my kin, my partner — though he does not know what is in accordance with his own nature. But I do know it; and so I deal with him under the shared law that binds kindred beings, treating him kindly and justly, while at the same time aiming, in matters that are indifferent, at his true worth.