Truth and modesty

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Often appears with: reason and the intellect · rational soul · love of neighbor · justice as a virtue · justice and law · friendship and loyalty

Usually: argument (1) · exhortation (1)

Quotable

“Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had my reward.” Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius · observation

Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius primary

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · composed during the reign and campaigns of Marcus Aurelius; tradition places major composition in the 2nd century CE
Section. I have also added a “1.” before the first “thought” in each > BOOK XI. (1/7)

Marcus Aurelius explains that the rational soul can know, analyze, and shape itself toward its own end, and that it naturally loves neighbors and values truth and modesty above everything.

1. These are the properties of the rational soul: it sees itself, analyses itself, and makes itself such as it chooses; the fruit which it bears itself enjoys,—for the fruits of plants and that in animals which corresponds to fruits others enjoy,—it obtains its own end, wherever the limit of life may be fixed. Not as in a dance and in a play and in such like things, where the whole action is incomplete if anything cu…