Marcus Aurelius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Your little breath, and all the fiery element mixed within you, though by nature they tend upward, nevertheless obey the ordering of the whole and are held here in check within the compound. And likewise all the earthy and moist element within you, though it tends downward, has nonetheless been raised up and stands in a position not natural to it. In this way even the elements obey the whole, remaining stationed wherever they have been posted by force, until the signal for their release sounds again from that same source. Is it not strange, then, that only your intelligent part should be disobedient and resentful of its own station? And yet nothing violent is imposed on it, only what is in accordance with its nature; but it will not put up with this, and instead is carried the opposite way. For the movement toward injustice, toward wanton acts, toward anger, grief, and fear is nothing other than a falling away from nature. And whenever the ruling faculty is vexed at something that happens, it likewise abandons its own proper station; for it has been constituted for holiness and reverence toward the divine no less than for justice. Indeed these too belong to the class of right community with others — or rather they are even prior in rank to acts of justice.