As it happens to thee in the amphitheatre and such places, that the continual sight of the same things, and the uniformity, make the spectacle wearisome, so it is in the whole of life; for all things above, below, are the same and from the same.
In his personal writings, Marcus Aurelius uses an analogy of the amphitheater to describe the repetitive nature of life's experiences.
Share
More from Marcus Aurelius
For he who yields to pain and he who yields to anger, both are wounded and both submit.
In the application of thy principles thou must be like the pancratiast, not like the gladiator; for the gladiator lets fall the sword which he uses and is killed; but the other always has his hand, and needs to do nothing else than use it.
Further, he was not fond of change nor unsteady, but he loved to stay in the same places, and to employ himself about the same things; and after his paroxysms of headache he came immediately fresh and vigorous to his usual occupations.
Other voices in this conversation
