Look within; within is the fountain of all good. Such a fountain, where springing waters can never fail, so thou dig still deeper and deeper.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book VII (180 CE) Translated by Meric Casaubon
Source checked by an editor
When and why it was written
- When
- Written in camp during the Marcomannic Wars, around 170 to 180 CE, as private notes the emperor never meant to publish.
- Why
- Marcus was reminding himself where steadiness comes from when everything outside him was war, plague and court politics.
What it means
Marcus places the source of good inside the person and makes it a matter of effort: you have to keep digging. The fountain does not run dry, but it does not come to the surface on its own either.
For a journal, this is the whole method. A few honest lines a day are the digging.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Meditations, 180 CE
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