Friday, September 02, 2005
Retreat
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.3 (tr. George Long):
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Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility.Cf. John Milton, Paradise Lost 1.254-255:
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
