Marcus Aurelius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
If the gods took counsel about me and about what ought to befall me, they took counsel well; for it is not easy even to conceive of a god without counsel. As for what reason would they have set out to do me harm? What advantage would come to them, or to the common good which they care for above all, from that? But if they took no counsel privately about me in particular, they certainly took counsel about things in common, and whatever follows as a consequence of these I am bound to welcome and embrace. But if in fact they take counsel about nothing at all — which it is impious to believe, or else let us stop sacrificing, praying, swearing oaths, and doing the other things we do on each occasion as though the gods were present and living alongside us — but if in fact they take counsel about none of the things that concern us, then the deliberating falls to me alone, and working out my own benefit is my job. And what benefits each creature is whatever fits its particular makeup and design — mine being a rational, civic one. As Antoninus, my city and fatherland is Rome; as a human being, it is the universe. What benefits these cities, then, is alone what is good for me.