《沉思录·卷十一·灵魂的属性》第8条
A branch cut off from the adjacent branch must of necessity be cut off from the whole tree also. So too a man when he is separated from another man has fallen off from the whole social community. Now as to a branch, another cuts it off; but a man by his own act separates himself from his neighbor when he hates him and turns away from him, and he does not know that he has at the same time cut himself off from the whole social system. Yet he has this privilege certainly from Zeus, who framed society, for it is in our power to grow again to that which is near to us, and again to become a part which helps to make up the whole. However, if it often happens, this kind of separation, it makes it difficult for that which detaches itself to be brought to unity and to be restored to its former condition. Finally, the branch, which from the first grew together with the tree, and has continued to have one life with it, is not like that which after being cut off is then ingrafted, for this is something like what the gardeners mean when they say that it grows with the rest of the tree, but+ that it has not the same mind with it.
注释摘要
奥勒留在这里用一种植物学的比喻来切入他最关心的伦理问题：人怎样才能不自己毁掉自己。树枝如果被从邻近的树枝上砍断，它就必然也从整棵树上被砍断了。这是一个机械的、必然的后果，不涉及树枝本身的意愿，纯粹是外力所为。但当他把这个形象转到人身上时，关键的区别就出来了。一个人被另一个人分离，这不是外力像刀斧一样从外部劈下来，而是人自己的行为造成的。他恨他的邻人、转身不…