《沉思录·卷七·痛苦与忍受》第66条
How do we know if Telauges was not superior in character to Socrates? For it is not enough that Socrates died a more noble death, and disputed more skilfully with the sophists, and passed the night in the cold with more endurance, and that when he was bid to arrest Leon of Salamis, he considered it more noble to refuse, and that he walked in a swaggering way in the streets--though as to this fact one may have great doubts if it was true. But we ought to inquire what kind of a soul it was that Socrates possessed, and if he was able to be content with being just towards men and pious towards the gods, neither idly vexed on account of men's villainy, nor yet making himself a slave to any man's ignorance, nor receiving as strange anything that fell to his share out of the universal, nor enduring it as intolerable, nor allowing his understanding to sympathize with the affects of the miserable flesh.
注释摘要
这一段的锋利之处，在于它把道德判断的标准从外部拉回到内部。奥勒留提出一个让人不安的可能性：泰劳吉斯，一个在哲学史上几乎只作为“毕达哥拉斯之子”而被附带提及的名字，也许在品格上比苏格拉底更优秀。这个假设本身就是一种激烈的精神练习，意在撬动我们对“伟大人物”的惯常崇拜。他随即列举苏格拉底那些被传颂的事迹：高贵的赴死、与智者机辩、寒夜中屹立不动的坚忍、拒绝逮捕萨…