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Meditations · Marcus Aurelius

VII. Let opinion be taken away, and no man will think himself wronged.

If no man shall think himself wronged, then is there no more any

such thing as wrong. That which makes not man himself the worse,

cannot make his life the worse, neither can it hurt him either inwardly

or outwardly. It was expedient in nature that it should be so,

and therefore necessary. VIII. Whatsoever doth happen in the world, doth

happen justly, and so if thou dost well take heed, thou shalt find it.

I say not only in right order by a series of inevitable consequences,

but according to justice and as it were by way of equal distribution,

according to the true worth of everything. Continue then to take

notice of it, as thou hast begun, and whatsoever thou dost,

do it not without this proviso, that it be a thing of that nature

that a good man (as the word good is properly taken) may do it.

This observe carefully in every action. IX. Conceit no such things,

as he that wrongeth thee conceiveth, or would have thee to conceive,

but look into the matter itself, and see what it is in very truth.