Things themselves touch not the soul, not in the least degree; nor have they admission to the soul, nor can they turn or move the soul: but the soul turns and moves itself alone, and whatever judgments it may think proper to make, such it makes for itself the things which present themselves to it.
Marcus Aurelius asserts the soul's complete autonomy from external events, emphasizing its power to form its own judgments.
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And how small a part of the whole substance; and how small a part of the universal soul; and on what a small clod of the whole earth thou creepest!
What remains, except to enjoy life by joining one good thing to another so as not to leave even the smallest intervals between?
Reflecting on all this, consider nothing to be great, except to act as thy nature leads thee, and to endure that which the common nature brings.
There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains, and other things infinite.
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