HKB
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Often appears with: tranquillity · temperance and self-mastery · self-governance · providence and divine governance · providence · fate, destiny, and necessity
Usually: reflection (1) · detachment (1) · exhortation (1)
“If there is no Providence which governs the world, man has at least the power of governing himself according to the constitution of his nature; and so he may be tranquil if he does the best that he can.” Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · insight
“Throw away the thought, How thou shall seem [to others], and be content if thou shalt live the rest of thy life in such wise as thy nature wills.” Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · precept
The author argues that a person becomes tranquil by rejecting the idea that governing aims lack rational order and instead trusting in Providence or, failing that, governing oneself by human nature.
nature of a supreme power, whose existence Antoninus always assumes. The tranquillity that a man may gain from these reflections must result from his rejecting the second hypothesis and accepting the first--whatever may be the exact sense in which the emperor understood the first. Or, as he says elsewhere, if there is no Providence which governs the world, man has at least the power of governi…