Heed your own mind. Marcus Aurelius 6.35

Marcus exhorts himself to remain true to his mind, to note and solicit its judgments with respect. A good person cannot live well by ignoring or despising his own mind.


Οὐχ ὁρᾷς πῶς οἱ βάναυσοι τεχνῖται ἁρμόζονται μὲν μέχρι τινὸς πρὸς τοὺς ἰδιώτας, οὐδὲν ἧσσον μέντοι ἀντέχονται τοῦ λόγου τῆς τέχνης καὶ τούτου ἀποστῆναι οὐχ ὑπομένουσιν; οὐ δεινὸν εἰ ὁ ἀρχιτέκτων καὶ ὁ ἰατρὸς μᾶλλον αἰδέσονται τὸν τῆς ἰδίας τέχνης λόγον ἢ ὁ ἄνθρωπος τὸν ἑαυτοῦ, ὃς αὐτῷ κοινός ἐστι πρὸς τοὺς θεούς;


Don't you see how unthinking technicians render themselves as near to idiots as it is possible for them to be, refusing to grasp the rational order of their craft and hastening rather to get away from it as quickly as they can? Terrible as it is for an architect or a doctor to be ashamed of the order that belongs properly to building or medicine, is it not worse for a man to despise his own indwelling order, the rational faculty that gives him common cause with gods?