“Why then dost thou choose to act in the same way? and why dost thou not leave these agitations which are foreign to nature, to those who cause them and those who are moved by them? And why art thou not altogether intent upon the right way of making use of things which happen to thee? for then thou wilt use them well, and they will be material for thee. Only attend to thyself, and resolve to be a good man in every act which thou doest; and remember…”
VII, 58
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Marcus Aurelius 400
Emperor of Ancient Rome 121–180Related quotes

IX, 40
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IX
Context: Why dost thou not pray... to give thee the faculty of not fearing any of the things which thou fearest, or of not desiring any of the things which thou desirest, or not being pained at anything, rather than pray that any of these things should not happen or happen?

Second Tablet to ‘Him Who Will Be Made Manifest’

“Why dost thou not strike? Strike, man!”
To his executioner, as reported in Curiosities of Literature (1835) by Isaac Disraeli, p. 302
Attributed

Sermon 62: On the Education of Children, in The Works of Dr. John Tillotson (1772) edited by Thomas Birch, Vol 3, p. 197; this is more commonly quoted as modernized and paraphrased by John Charles Ryle, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool (1880–1900): "To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is but a beckoning to them with the head to show them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them in the way to hell."