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Meditations · Marcus Aurelius

XX. Let not that chief commanding part of thy soul be ever

subject to any variation through any corporal either pain

or pleasure, neither suffer it to be mixed with these, but let

it both circumscribe itself, and confine those affections

to their own proper parts and members. But if at any time

they do reflect and rebound upon the mind and understanding

(as in an united and compacted body it must needs;) then must

thou not go about to resist sense and feeling, it being natural.

However let not thy understanding to this natural sense

and feeling, which whether unto our flesh pleasant or painful,

is unto us nothing properly, add an opinion of either good

or bad and all is well.