"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."-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 9.37
("이 비참하고 징징거리는 삶은 이제 그만둡시다. 더 이상 장난치지 맙시다! 왜 그렇게 고민하십니까? 무슨 새로운 일입니까? 무엇이 그렇게 혼란스럽습니까? 책임이 있는 사람을 잘 살펴봅시다. 아니면 그 문제 자체를 봅시다. 다른 것을 볼 필요가 없습니다. 신들에 관해서라면, 이제 더 솔직하고 친절하게 대해봅시다. 100년 동안 이문제들을 살펴보든, 단 3년 동안 살펴보든 똑같습니다." - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, "명상록", 9.37)
Character," Joan Didion would write in one of her best essays, "the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life- is the source from which self-respect springs."
Marcus is urging us not to waste time complaining about what we haven't got or how things have worked out. We have to quit monkeying around and be the owners of our own lives. Character can be developed, and...
