Warn yourself at dawn. Marcus Aurelius 2.1

Marcus Aurelius begins his second book of notes with a reminder that he cannot afford to flip out when people around him are evil. Being emperor means you must embrace the evil: see it clearly, in yourself as well as others, and find ways to manage it without losing your head. Have no shame, and no resentment. You can hear this passage in Greek <here>.

Ἕωθεν προλέγειν ἑαυτῷ· συντεύξομαι περιέργῳ, ἀχαρίστῳ, ὑβριστῇ, δολερῷ, βασκάνῳ, ἀκοινωνήτῳ· πάντα ταῦτα συμβέβηκεν ἐκείνοις παρὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν. ἐγὼ δὲ τεθεωρηκὼς τὴν φύσιν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ὅτι καλόν, καὶ τοῦ κακοῦ ὅτι αἰσχρόν, καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἁμαρτάνοντος φύσιν ὅτι μοι συγγενής, οὐχὶ αἵματος ἢ σπέρματος τοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ νοῦ καὶ θείας ἀπομοίρας μέτοχος, οὔτε βλαβῆναι ὑπό τινος αὐτῶν δύναμαι· αἰσχρῷ γάρ με οὐδεὶς περιβαλεῖ· οὔτε ὀργίζεσθαι τῷ συγγενεῖ δύναμαι οὔτε ἀπέχθεσθαι αὐτῷ. γεγόναμεν γὰρ πρὸς συνεργίαν ὡς πόδες, ὡς χεῖρες, ὡς βλέφαρα, ὡς οἱ στοῖχοι τῶν ἄνω καὶ κάτω ὀδόντων. τὸ οὖν ἀντιπράσσειν ἀλλήλοις παρὰ φύσιν· ἀντιπρακτικὸν δὲ τὸ ἀγανακτεῖν καὶ ἀποστρέφεσθαι.

Warn yourself at dawn: Today I shall meet with busywork, ingratitude, insolence, deceit, slander, secrecy—and all that accompanies these vices besides ignorance of good and evil. I have witnessed the nature of goodness myself: it is beautiful. And the nature of evil: it is ugly, shameful. I have witnessed also the nature of the wrongdoer: it is akin to my own, sprung not from blood or seed of the same father, but from the mind, and it carries a bit of divinity within itself. I am invulnerable to it, for none shall trap me with hideous shame. I cannot be roused to anger against my kin, nor shall I hold myself apart from them. We are born to work together—like the feet, the hands, the eyes, the two rows of teeth in the jaw. To work against one another is to work against nature. To rage against them, turning back from our shared task, is utterly impractical.