“He [Marcus Aurelius] has doubts perhaps sometimes even about that to which he holds most firmly. There are only a few passages of this kind, but they are evidence of the struggles which even the noblest of the sons of men had to maintain against the hard realities of his daily life.”
The Philosophy of Antoninus
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George Long 66
English classical scholar 1800–1879Related quotes

Chap.II: The Rise Of The Historic Level
The Revolt of the Masses (1929)
Context: To-day the [Enlightenment] ideal has been changed into a reality; not only in legislation, which is the mere framework of public life, but in the heart of every individual, whatever his ideas may be, and even if he be a reactionary in his ideas, that is to say, even when he attacks and castigates institutions by which those rights are sanctioned.… The sovereignty of the unqualified individual, of the human being as such, generically, has now passed from being a juridical idea or ideal to be a psychological state inherent in the average man. And note this, that when what was before an ideal becomes a component part of reality, it inevitably ceases to be an ideal. The prestige and the magic that are attributes of the ideal are volatilised.

Source: 1910s, Proposed Roads To Freedom (1918), Ch. VI: International relations, p. 97
Campbell's recollection in 1819 after a visit to Swellendam, quoted in Die Wêreld van Susanna Smit, 1799–1863, Schoeman (1995)

Source: p. 47 Natyacharya Mani Madhava Chakyar, Attendance - The Dance Annual of India 2009 http://www.attendance-india.com/#2009