“Be thou erect, or be made erect.”
VII, 12
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

“If a temple is to be erected, a temple must be destroyed.”
Essay 2, Section 24
On the Genealogy of Morality (1887)

“This is the negation of God erected into a system of Government.”
A letter to the Earl of Aberdeen, on the state prosecutions of the Neapolitan government (7 April 1851), p. 9.
1850s

“You must die erect and unyielding.”
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XXXVII: On Allegiance to Virtue

“High-erected thoughts seated in the heart of courtesy.”
Book 1. Compare: "Great thoughts come from the heart", Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, Maxim cxxvii.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“Reason is intelligence taking exercise; imagination is intelligence with an erection.”
Unpublished notebook from 1845-50. Published in Seebacher (ed.), Oeuvres Complètes, vol. 10, p. 158 (Laffont, 1989). English translation from Robb, Victor Hugo p. 249 (Norton, 1997).

“Erect I make a resolution; prone I revoke it.”
All Gall Is Divided (1952)