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Meditations · Marcus Aurelius

XXV. Is it not a cruel thing to forbid men to affect those things,

which they conceive to agree best with their own natures,

and to tend most to their own proper good and behoof?

But thou after a sort deniest them this liberty, as often as thou

art angry with them for their sins. For surely they are led

unto those sins whatsoever they be, as to their proper good

and commodity. But it is not so (thou wilt object perchance).

Thou therefore teach them better, and make it appear unto them:

but be not thou angry with them. XXVI. Death is a cessation

from the impression of the senses, the tyranny of the passions,

the errors of the mind, and the servitude of the body.