Fourteen words against the whole of philosophical literature. This is the shortest passage in the book and probably the sharpest. It does not quarrel with the content of ethical discussion — it abolishes the genre: μηκέθ’ ὅλως… διαλέγεσθαι, "no longer discuss at all." The adverb ὅλως ("wholly, at all") leaves no room even for a little discussing: debate about TERMwhat a good man is like is declared closed.

The verb chosen. διαλέγεσθαι is not "to speak" in general but precisely to converse, to argue dialectically: the word of the school, the word of the Platonic dialogue. Marcus, who spent his life writing exactly this διάλογος with himself, breaks it off mid-sentence. The opposition is left utterly bare: not διαλέγεσθαι but εἶναι — not to discuss, but to be.

Postponement as a form of evasion. The passage is the formula of EXERCISEμηκέτι ἀναβολή in its purest form: talk about virtue is convenient precisely because it is endless, and therefore never binding. So long as the subject is under discussion it stays ahead of you; but "becoming" can only be done now. Cf. 10.8, where the same thought comes from the other side — the names are to be borne, without hankering to be called by them — and 8.5 (ἀγαθόν σε ἄνθρωπον εἶναι δεῖ). The governing discipline is action, the sustaining one assent.