Daily Stoic 07.08 | Stop Monkeying Around
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.37 1
Self-respect will only be achieved once you accept responsibility for your own life. Stop complaining about the things out of your control and take control! Do this, and you will begin to develop character, which to be without, is the worst of all fates. Do you enjoy being sleepless at night, thinking about your sins? No! So take control at once, stop wasting time!
“Enough of this miserable, whining life. Stop monkeying around! Why are you troubled? What’s new here? What’s so confounding? The one responsible? Take a good look. Or just the matter itself? Then look at that. There’s nothing else to look at. And as far as the gods go, by now you could try being more straightforward and kind. It’s the same, whether you’ve examined these things for a hundred years, or only three.”↩