Roger on Nostr: You are quoting a note written only to himself. Meditations is a private exercise ...

You are quoting a note written only to himself. Meditations is a private exercise book, kept in Greek, never meant for other eyes, and that is where the passage gets its edge. He had no audience to persuade. The passage continues past the part usually quoted: plants, birds, ants, spiders and bees, each doing its own work. It closes on the nature of the rational and social animal. Work there does not mean a job. Read that way it is the opposite of a productivity slogan, and that is why it still stings at five in the morning.