Goods real & fake. Marcus Aurelius 5.12

Here Marcus discusses a problem with goods. Some goods are simply good (virtues like prudence, justice, or courage). Others are not (material possessions and a good public reputation). How do we mark the difference? If something must be praised by others to be good, then it isn't really good, and we should expect too much of it to be, in fact, bad. Material wealth and celebrity, while they seem good to many people most of the time, frequently prove evil in history, depriving their possessors of freedom that our life requires.

Ὁποῖά τινά ἐστι τὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς δοκοῦντα ἀγαθά, κἂν ἐντεῦθεν λάβοις. εἰ γάρ τις ἐπινοήσειεν ὑπάρχοντά τινα ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀγαθά, οἷον φρόνησιν, σωφροσύνην, δικαιοσύνην, ἀνδρείαν, οὐκ ἂν ταῦτα προεπινοήσας ἔτι ἀκοῦσαι δυνηθείη τό· «ὑπὸ τῶν ἀγαθῶν», οὐ γὰρ ἐφαρμόσει. τὰ δέ γε τοῖς πολλοῖς φαινόμενα ἀγαθὰ προεπινοήσας τις ἐξακούσεται καὶ ῥᾳδίως δέξεται ὡς οἰκείως ἐπιλεγόμενον τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ κωμικοῦ εἰρημένον. οὕτως καὶ οἱ πολλοὶ φαντάζονται τὴν διαφοράν· οὐ γὰρ ἂν τοῦτο μὲν οὐ προσέκοπτε καὶ ἀπηξιοῦτο, τὸ δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ πλούτου καὶ τῶν πρὸς τρυφὴν ἢ δόξαν εὐκληρημάτων παρεδεχόμεθα ὡς ἱκνουμένως καὶ ἀστείως εἰρημένον. πρόιθι οὖν καὶ ἐρώτα, εἰ τιμητέον καὶ ἀγαθὰ ὑποληπτέον τὰ τοιαῦτα, ὧν προεπινοηθέντων οἰκείως ἂν ἐπιφέροιτο τὸ τὸν κεκτημένον αὐτὰ ὑπὸ τῆς εὐπορίας «οὐκ ἔχειν ὅποι χέσῃ».

Things the masses call goods, even if you happen to agree with them in some particular instance, are ultimately something different. For if we consider actual goods—real things like prudence, temperance, justice, courage—none of us expects or awaits to hear their reality vouched for: “Good people approved this!” That would feel wrong. But when it comes to public goods, or things that charm the people at any rate, we eagerly attend and receive as our own the opinions of comic poets. For the masses imagine good judgment on this wise: instead of considering whether something is inoffensive or unworthy, we approve anything that appears to serve our wealth, luxury, or glory, receiving every statement that supports these things as proper and patriotic. Go on and ask the question that presents: should we honor and receive as goods things whose possession in abundance crowds and constipates the possessor, so that (in the words of the vulgar aphorism) he has no room to shit?