《沉思录·卷二·写于格拉努阿河畔》第13条
Nothing is more wretched than a man who traverses everything in a round, and pries into the things beneath the earth, as the poet says, and seeks by conjecture what is in the minds of his neighbors, without perceiving that it is sufficient to attend to the daemon within him, and to reverence it sincerely. And reverence of the daemon consists in keeping it pure from passion and thoughtlessness, and dissatisfaction with what comes from gods and men. For the things from the gods merit veneration for their excellence; and the things from men should be dear to us by reason of kinship; and sometimes even, in a manner, they move our pity by reason of men's ignorance of good and bad; this defect being not less than that which deprives us of the power of distinguishing things that are white and black.
注释摘要
奥勒留在这里区分了两种截然不同的生命状态：一种是向外发散、四处打探，另一种是向内收敛、守住主宰。他引用的“如同诗人所说”的人，就是那种永远在兜圈子，对地下的事情推测不休，对邻人的心思妄加猜度的人。这在斯多葛派看来，是一个灵魂完全失去中心的症状。因为它把精力耗费在了既不可知、也不可控的事情上，尤其是“别人的心思”——那恰恰是爱比克泰德反复警告的禁区，不属于我…