Marcus Aurelius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Having set these names for yourself—good, modest, truthful, sound of mind, of one mind with what is common, above the mind's ordinary reach—take care never to be renamed from them; and if you should lose these names, return to them quickly. Remember that 'sound of mind' meant for you a discerning attention to each particular and a freedom from inattention; 'of one mind with what is common' meant a willing acceptance of what is assigned by the common nature; and 'above the mind's ordinary reach' meant the raising of the thinking part above the smooth or rough motion of the flesh, and above petty reputation, and death, and all such things. If, then, you keep yourself among these names, not hankering after being called by them by others, you will be a different person and will enter upon a different life. For to go on being the sort of person you have been until now, and to be torn and fouled in such a life, belongs to someone altogether without feeling and altogether too fond of his own life—like those half-eaten beast-fighters who, covered all over with wounds and gore, still beg to be kept alive until the next day, though they will be thrown to the same claws and teeth. So embark yourself upon these few names, and if you can remain in them, remain, as if you had been resettled on some Isles of the Blessed;
But if you perceive that you are falling out of them and not holding your ground, withdraw boldly into some corner where you will keep hold of them, or else depart from life altogether—not in anger, but simply, freely, and with due modesty, having accomplished this one thing in your life at least, that you left it in this way. And toward remembering these names it will greatly help you to remember the gods, and that what they want is not to be flattered, but that all rational beings should be made like themselves, and that the fig tree should do what belongs to a fig tree, the dog what belongs to a dog, the bee what belongs to a bee, and the human being what belongs to a human being.