Pain is either an evil to the body--then let the body say what it thinks of it--or to the soul; but it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquillity, and not to think that pain is an evil.
He argues that the soul has the power to remain undisturbed by physical pain, refusing to deem it an evil.
Share
More from Marcus Aurelius
Throw away thy books; no longer distract thyself: it is not allowed; but as if thou wast now dying, despise the flesh; it is blood and bones and network, a contexture of nerves, veins, and arteries.
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.
All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.
Other voices in this conversation
