7.12 not: The transmitted text reads “or,” but this can hardly be correct (compare
3.5).
7.15 Like gold or emerald or purple: Compare Epictetus, Discourses 1.2.17–
18: “You see yourself as one thread in a garment... But I want to be
the purple thread, the small, glistening one that enhances the others.”
7.24 “... “ or in the end is put out: I have omitted a short phrase from which it
is impossible to extract any meaning.
7.31a “... all are relative.. .”: A paraphrase of Democritus frg. B 9, in which
qualities like sweetness or bitterness are said to be “relative” or
“conventional” rather than inherent (what tastes sweet to one person
may be bitter to another). Marcus apparently sees the observation as
compatible with the Stoic doctrine that “it’s all in how you perceive it”
(12.8), though he naturally rejects the subsequent reference to atoms.
The final phrase is corrupt beyond repair.
7.32 [On death]: The headings of this and the next two entries are probably not
Marcus’s own, but additions by a later reader.
7.35 “If his mind is filled.. .”: Plato, Republic 6.486a.
7.36 “Kingship.. .”: Antisthenes frg. 20b (also quoted by Epictetus, Discourses
4.6.20).
7.38 “And why should we feel anger.. .”: Euripides, frg. 287 (from the lost
Bellerophon quoted also at 11.6).
7.39 “May you bring joy.. .”: Source unknown; perhaps from a lost epic.
7.40 “To harvest life.. .”: Euripides, frg. 757 (from the lost Hypsipyle).
7.41 “If I and my two children.. .”: Euripides, frg. 208 (from the lost Antiope;
quoted also at 11.6).
7.42 “For what is just and good.. .”: Ibid., frg. 918 (from an unknown play).