“Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”

Source: Meditations

Last update Aug. 2, 2022. History

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Marcus Aurelius photo
Marcus Aurelius 400
Emperor of Ancient Rome 121–180

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Alternate translation: The voice is a flowing breath, made sensible to the organ of hearing by the movements it produces in the air. It is propagated in infinite numbers of circular zones, exactly as when a stone is thrown into a pool of standing water countless circular undulations are generated therein, which, increasing as they recede from the center, spread out over a great distance, unless the narrowness of the locality or some obstacle prevent their reaching their termination; for the first line or waves, when impeded by obstructions, throw by their backward swell the succeeding circular lines of waves into confusion. Quoted by Ernst Mach, The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Account of its Development (1893, 1960) Tr. Thomas J. McCormack
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