The Most-Read Classics
Catalogue  /  Meditations  /  XIX. Suppose that at the palestra somebody hath all to-torn thee
Meditations · Marcus Aurelius

XIX. Suppose that at the palestra somebody hath all to-torn thee

with his nails, and hath broken thy head. Well, thou art wounded.

Yet thou dost not exclaim; thou art not offended with him.

Thou dost not suspect him for it afterwards, as one that watcheth

to do thee a mischief. Yea even then, though thou dost thy best to save

thyself from him, yet not from him as an enemy. It is not by way of any

suspicious indignation, but by way of gentle and friendly declination.

Keep the same mind and disposition in other parts of thy life also.

For many things there be, which we must conceit and apprehend,

as though we had had to do with an antagonist at the palestra.

For as I said, it is very possible for us to avoid and decline,

though we neither suspect, nor hate.