From Diognetus, not to busy… (Marcus Aurelius)

"From Diognetus, not to busy myself about trifling things, and not to give credit to what was said by miracle-workers and jugglers about incantations and the driving away of daemons and such things; and not to breed quails for fighting, nor to give myself up passionately to such things; and to endure freedom of speech; and to have become intimate with philosophy; and to have been a hearer, first of Bacchius, then of Tandasis and Marcianus; and to have written dialogues in my youth; and to have desired a plank bed and skin, and whatever else of the kind belongs to the Grecian discipline."

^{(Marcus Aurelius, "The Meditations")}

^{Photo by Enoch Hsiao c/o Unsplash.}

^{Translation by George Long c/o The Internet Classics Archive.}