“One thing here is worth a great deal, to pass thy life in truth and justice, with a benevolent disposition even to liars and unjust men.”  Marcus Aurelius

At this point, I wonder to myself whether to live by Marcus Aurelius words above is all I need.  There are proofs through logic that this is the best way to live, but do I need to go through the proofs?  Is it like math class when I just wanted the teacher to give me the equation I could use to find the answer?  Do I really need the proof?

Here is the full context of the opening quote from the Meditations.  It’s like the proof.  The last of the quote is the equation that I need:  “Think continually that all kinds of men and of all kinds of pursuits and of all nations are dead, so that thy thoughts come down even to Philistion and Phoebus and Origanion. Now turn thy thoughts to the other kinds of men. To that place then we must remove, where there are so many great orators, and so many noble philosophers, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Socrates; so many heroes of former days, and so many generals after them, and tyrants; besides these, Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Archimedes, and other men of acute natural talents, great minds, lovers of labour, versatile, confident, mockers even of the perishable and ephemeral life of man, as Menippus and such as are like him. As to all these consider that they have long been in the dust. What harm then is this to them; and what to those whose names are altogether unknown? One thing here is worth a great deal, to pass thy life in truth and justice, with a benevolent disposition even to liars and unjust men.