For this also is a weakness, to be vexed at them, as well as to be diverted from thy course of action and to give way through fear; for both are equally deserters from their post,--the man who does it through fear, and the man who is alienated from him who is by nature a kinsman and a friend.
In his personal reflections, this passage identifies both fear and alienation from kinsmen as forms of weakness and dereliction of duty.
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More from Marcus Aurelius
Be cheerful also, and seek not external help nor the tranquillity which others give.
What a power man has to do nothing except what God will approve, and to accept all that God may give him.
Do not then consider life a thing of any value. + For look to the immensity of time behind thee, and to the time which is before thee, another boundless space.
For every judgment and movement and desire and aversion is within, and no evil ascends so high.
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