Aurelius, Meditations §aur_10_xxxv: A good eye must be good to see whatsoever is to be seen, and not green things...
Source: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (c. AD 170) (aur_10_xxxv) · external_aligned
A good eye must be good to see whatsoever is to be seen, and not green things only. For that is proper to sore eyes. So must a good ear, and a good smell be ready for whatsoever is either to be heard, or smelt: and a good stomach as indifferent to all kinds of food, as a millstone is, to whatsoever she was made for to grind. As ready therefore must a sound understanding be for whatsoever shall happen. But he that saith, O that my children might live! and, O that all men might commend me for whatsoever I do! is an eye that seeks after green things; or as teeth, after that which is tender.
Witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15)
- manuscript_tradition: Vaticanus Graecus 1950 — earliest complete Greek MS
- critical_edition: Dalfen, Marci Aurelii Antonini Ad Se Ipsum Libri XII (Teubner 1987)
- translation: George Long translation (1862) — public domain English
- translation: Hays translation (Modern Library, 2002)
- republication: Internet Archive — Meditations Long translation