For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the order of the things which take place now; accordingly to have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years.
Marcus Aurelius asserts the unchanging patterns of human life, suggesting that extensive observation reveals universal truths.
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One is that things do not touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable; but our perturbations come only from the opinion which is within.
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…
That which is from fortune is not separated from nature or without an interweaving and involution with the things which are ordered by providence.
He was also easy in conversation, and he made himself agreeable without any offensive affectation.
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