“For there is no veil over a star.”
When you're done pretending.
This line comes on
About this line
It's the last line of Book XI, section 27. Marcus passes on a habit of the Pythagoreans: look to the sky each morning. The stars, he says, keep doing the same work in the same way, in "their purity and nudity." This line gives the reason.
Why we carry this line
I have a thing about dark skies. The stars in Aurelius' time didn't look very different from how they look now.
And remember, he only wrote this for himself. My interpretation: live faithful to who you are.
The design
One small dot sits high and off to one side, like the last star in a morning sky. The line waits well below it. The open space between them is the design.
Documented source
Every quote here is traced to a documented source. How we verify →
More lines that feel like this
All of Wonder →More from Marcus Aurelius
Author page →To recover thy life is in thy power.
Meditations, VII.2 · New Chapter