T P O

T   P   O
The Patient Ox (aka Hénock Gugsa)

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** TPO **
A personal blog with diverse topicality and multiple interests!


On the menu ... politics, music, poetry, and other good stuff.
There is humor, but there is blunt seriousness here as well!


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Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Wise Counsel from Marcus Aurelius ~ by TPO

 

Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (121A.D -180A.D.)

Wise Counsel from Marcus Aurelius ~ by TPO 

 Marcus Aurelius writes: *

    At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”

[To the mind’s natural protestation that staying under the blankets simply feels nicer, Aurelius retorts:]

    So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?
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* Source: "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius [TheMarginalian, Maria Popova]

 

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