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Meditations · Marcus Aurelius

XVII. Whatsoever proceeds from the gods immediately, that any

man will grant totally depends from their divine providence.

As for those things that are commonly said to happen by fortune,

even those must be conceived to have dependence from nature,

or from that first and general connection, and concatenation of all

those things, which more apparently by the divine providence are

administered and brought to pass. All things flow from thence:

and whatsoever it is that is, is both necessary, and conducing

to the whole (part of which thou art), and whatsoever it is that

is requisite and necessary for the preservation of the general,

must of necessity for every particular nature, be good and behoveful.

And as for the whole, it is preserved, as by the perpetual mutation

and conversion of the simple elements one into another, so also

by the mutation, and alteration of things mixed and compounded.

Let these things suffice thee; let them be always unto thee,

as thy general rules and precepts. As for thy thirst after books,

away with it with all speed, that thou die not murmuring and complaining,

but truly meek and well satisfied, and from thy heart thankful

unto the gods.