September 08, 2026

Not Built To Turn Away

We are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away.

Marcus Aurelius wrote this in Book Two of his Meditations, likely on a cold military campaign, bracing himself each morning for the difficult people he expected to meet. He reminds himself that the busybody, the liar, the envious colleague are not obstacles to his nature but partners in it, since all rational beings share the same reason. The image he reaches for is the body itself: feet, hands, eyelids, upper and lower teeth all move together for one purpose, and no part gets ahead by fighting another. Stoics called this sympatheia, the recognition that all people belong to one city and one nature, so cooperation is the design we are built for, not a favor we grant when convenient. To practice it is to expect friction each morning and still choose to work alongside people rather than against them.

A principle of Stoicism: Sympatheia →