Meditations by Marcus Aurelius translated by George W. Chrystal (~180) Book Part 2 (22-42)
Bonus:
Summary: They're getting shorter!
Commentary:
23. You yourself are a part of a social system necessary to complete the whole. Accordingly, let your every action be a similar part of the social life. And if any action has not its reference, either immediate or distant, to the common good as its end, this action disorders your life and frustrates its unity. It is sedition like that of the man who, in a commonwealth, does all in his power to sever himself from the general harmony and concord.
Does yawning count as an action for the common good?
26. You have endured innumerable sufferings by not being satisfied with your own ruling part when it does the things which it was formed to do. Enough then of that.
You know the right thing to do, and denying it will just make you miserable.
Begin to pray about them and you will see. One man prays: “May I possess that woman!” Do you pray: “May I have no wish to possess her!” Another prays: “May I be delivered from so and so!” Pray you: “May I not need to be delivered from him!” A third cries: “May I not lose my child!” Let your prayer be: “May I not fear to lose him!” In fine, turn your prayers this way, and observe what comes of it.
I feel like that second one is very different. Need not be delivered could just mean he moves away for a job or something.
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