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“Thou art an old man; suffer not that excellent part to be brought in subjection, and to become slavish:”

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— Marcus Aurelius

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Live wording check · 2026-10-26

Author: Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius either flesh, or life, or that which we commonly call the mistress and overruling part of man; reason. Away with thy books, suffer not thy mind any more to be distracted, and carried to and fro; for it will not be; but as even now ready to die, think little of thy flesh: blood, bones, and a skin; a pretty piece of knit and twisted work, consisting of nerves, veins and arteries; think no more of it, than so. And as for thy life, consider what it is; a wind; not one constant wind neither, but every moment of an hour let out, and sucked in again. The third, is thy ruling part; and here consider; Thou art an old man; suffer not that excellent part to be brought in subjection, and to become slavish: suffer it not to be drawn up and down with unreasonable and unsociable lusts and motions, as it were with wires and nerves; suffer it not any more, either to repine at anything now present, or to fear and fly anything to come, which the destiny hath appointed thee. XVII. Whatsoever proceeds from the gods immediately, that any man will grant totally depends from their divine providence. As for those things that are commonly said to happen by fortune, even those must be conceived to have dependence from nature, or from that first and general connection, and concatenation of all those things, wh Public domain in the USA.
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Source

Title
Meditations
Type
Public-domain primary text · Primary source
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Context

The excellent part is the ruling faculty of reason.

What it means

Calls for inner freedom and self-government in old age.

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Bibliography entry
Aurelius, Marcus. (n.d.). Meditations. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2680/pg2680.txt
Quotation citation
Aurelius (n.d.)
In-text citation
(Aurelius, n.d.)

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Provenance: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2680/pg2680.txt