Marcus Aurelius: “Everything exists for some end,--a horse, a vine.”

The third, then, is the ruling part; consider thus: Thou art an old man; no longer let this be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet to unsocial movements, no longer be either dissatisfied with thy present lot, or…

For every judgment and movement and desire and aversion is within, and no evil ascends so high.

It is the same whether we examine these things for a hundred years or three.

All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.