Plain
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

There are mean people, weak people, cruel people, savage people, cowardly people, childish people. There are stupid people, dishonest people, crude people, scheming people, bullying people. So what? If someone who doesn't know how the world works is a stranger here, then why not be a stranger too — someone who wonders at all the things that happen in it?

Meditations, Book 4, Section 23 Book 4 · 30 of 54
Human Nature Calm Your Mind
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

A black or malign disposition, an effeminate disposition; an hard inexorable disposition, a wild inhuman disposition, a sheepish disposition, a childish disposition; a blockish, a false, a scurril, a fraudulent, a tyrannical: what then? If he be a stranger in the world, that knows not the things that are in it; why not be a stranger as well, that wonders at the things that are done in it?

Meditations, Book 4, Section 23 Book 4 · 30 of 54
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

Either this world is a beautiful, ordered system—everything arranged and governed by natural law—or it's a mixture that seems confused but is still beautiful. How could there be any beauty in you while the whole world contains nothing but chaos? All things are different from each other by their natural properties, yet they are connected and united by natural bonds.

Meditations, Book 4, Section 22 Book 4 · 29 of 54
Calm Your Mind Human Nature
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

Either this world is a κόσμος or comely piece, because all disposed and governed by certain order: or if it be a mixture, though confused, yet still it is a comely piece. For is it possible that in thee there should be any beauty at all, and that in the whole world there should be nothing but disorder and confusion? and all things in it too, by natural different properties one from another differenced and distinguished; and yet all through diffused, and by natural sympathy, one to another united, as they are?

Meditations, Book 4, Section 22 Book 4 · 29 of 54
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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