Marcus Aurelius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Either the gods hold no power at all, or some power belongs to them. If they hold none, why bother praying? Yet suppose power truly is theirs — could you not instead beg for freedom from dread of these things, freedom from craving these things, freedom from grief over these things, rather than begging that some particular thing stay away or turn up? Surely, if the gods can act on our behalf at all, they can act on our behalf here too. Perhaps you will object: the gods left this matter for me to control myself. Then is it not better to exercise, as a free man, what has been placed in your control, than to grovel after what lies outside it, cramped and servile? Besides, who informed you that the gods give no help even within the sphere that is ours to govern? Try it, at least — start praying along these lines and see what follows. One person prays: let me get this woman into bed. You instead: let me feel no urge to bed her. Another prays: let this man be out of my way. You instead: let me not need him gone. A third prays: don't let my small child die. You instead: let me face his death without terror. In every case, redirect the prayer this way, and observe what comes of it.