A wooden gavel lies on a hand mirror surrounded by grey paper shapes.

Original artwork, not a still

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker says distress comes not from outside events but from our opinion of them. Since that opinion is ours, we can drop it at once. The passage puts control in the mind's verdicts, offering release by revising judgment rather than changing circumstances.

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