{"id": "card_n_54acff4c9786", "kind": "note", "title": "Aurelius, Meditations §aur_08_iv: What they have done, they will still do, although thou shouldst hang thyself.", "body": "What they have done, they will still do, although thou shouldst hang thyself. First; let it not trouble thee. For all things both good and evil: come to pass according to the nature and general condition of the universe, and within a very little while, all things will be at an end; no man will be remembered: as now of Africanus (for example) and Augustus it is already come to pass. Then secondly; fix thy mind upon the thing itself; look into it, and remembering thyself, that thou art bound nevertheless to be a good man, and what it is that thy nature requireth of thee as thou art a man, be not diverted from what thou art about, and speak that which seemeth unto thee most just: only speak it kindly, modestly, and without hypocrisy.", "source": {"label": "Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (c. AD 170)", "url": "/canon.html?ref=aurelius_aur_08_iv", "ref": "aur_08_iv", "authority_tier": "external_aligned"}, "shelf": "classics", "box": "aurelius_meditations", "bands": ["aurelius", "meditations", "stoic", "pre_christian"], "connections": [{"to_card_id": "card_n_556feb56e07f", "relationship": "same_section", "origin": "nesting_2026_06_12"}, {"to_card_id": "card_n_54aba1d3c8cb", "relationship": "same_section", "origin": "nesting_2026_06_12"}], "author": "engine", "created_at": "2026-05-19T13:20:58.350233+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-19T19:57:55.789767+00:00", "visibility": "public", "lifecycle_stage": "public", "volatility": "permanent", "metrics": {"paperclips_count": 0, "helpful_count": 0, "not_helpful_count": 0, "cite_count": 4, "walks_through_count": 0, "flagged_count": 0}, "source_hash": "67d19b7be1d8663e77c6dabb96a573659ab45145733b54e4ee5a935fad762252", "witnesses": [{"class": "manuscript_tradition", "label": "Vaticanus Graecus 1950 — earliest complete Greek MS", "ref": "Vat-Gr-1950"}, {"class": "critical_edition", "label": "Dalfen, Marci Aurelii Antonini Ad Se Ipsum Libri XII (Teubner 1987)", "ref": "Dalfen-Teubner"}, {"class": "translation", "label": "George Long translation (1862) — public domain English", "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2680", "ref": "Long-1862"}, {"class": "translation", "label": "Hays translation (Modern Library, 2002)", "ref": "Hays-2002"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Internet Archive — Meditations Long translation", "url": "https://archive.org/details/meditations00auregoog", "ref": "IA-Meditations"}], "witness_status": "passed", "witness_status_reason": "5 witnesses across 4 independence classes: ['critical_edition', 'manuscript_tradition', 'republication', 'translation']", "surface": "secular"}