【每日斯多葛】10月10日

October 10th

REVERENCE AND JUSTICE

"Leave the past behind, let the grand design take care of the future, and instead only rightly guide the present to reverence and justice. Reverence so that you'll love what you've been allotted, for nature brought you both to each other. Justice so that you'll speak the truth freely and without evasion, and so that you'll act only as the law and value of things require."

—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 12.1

Aulus Gellius relates that Epictetus once said, "If anyone would take two words to heart and take pains to govern and watch over themselves by them, they will live an impeccable and immensely tranquil life. The two words are: persist and resist." That's great advice. But what principles should determine what we persist in and what we ought to resist?

Marcus supplies that answer: reverence and justice. In other words, virtue.

10月10日

敬畏与正义

"把过去抛在身后，让宏大的设计去照管未来，只需把当下正确地引向敬畏与正义。敬畏，是为了让你热爱自己所分得的一切，因为是自然把你们彼此带到一起。正义，是为了让你自由而不回避地说出真相，并且只依照事物的法则与价值所要求的去行动。"

——马可·奥勒留,《沉思录》,12.1

奥卢斯·革利乌斯转述，爱比克泰德曾说："如果有人能把两个词牢记于心，并努力以它们来约束和看护自己，他们就会过上无可指摘、极其平静的生活。这两个词是：坚持与抵制。"这是很好的建议。但是，应当由什么原则来决定我们坚持什么、抵制什么呢?

马可给出了答案：敬畏与正义。换句话说，就是美德。