A brass garden trowel rests beside a small hole with an arc of water rising from it against a dark teal background.

Original artwork, not a still

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The passage locates goodness within the person and compares it to a fountain. Continued digging is the condition for its continuing flow. One reading is that looking inward requires persistent effort: the source may be internal, but drawing on it is presented as active work.

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