Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Be cheerful also, and seek not external help nor the tranquillity which others give.”
- Date
- c. 170
- English wording
- George Long — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning of “Be cheerful also, and seek not external help…”
Marcus places steadiness inside the governing mind rather than in reassurance supplied by other people, emphasizing an internal source of composure while still writing within a larger Stoic ethic of social duty.
Where does it come from?
Meditations, Book III, section 5, George Long translation; Project Gutenberg #6920/#15877. The sentence immediately precedes “A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others,” making the inward-reliance context explicit.
