Let’s spend the rest of July reading from the wisdom of the Stoic philosophers. Here’s one of my favourites from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
“At daybreak, when loth to rise, have this thought ready in thy mind: ‘I am rising for a man’s work.’ Am I then still peevish that I am going to do that for which I was born and for the sake of which I came into the world? Or was I made for this, that I should nuzzle under the bed-clothes and keep myself warm? ‘But this is pleasanter!’ Hast thou been made then for pleasure?”