Place in the book. The purest formula of the discipline of assent: things do not touch the soul — all disturbance is from within. One of the two "readiest" teachings to which Marcus reduces everything in 04-03.

Things do not touch the soul. "Things themselves in no way touch (ἅπτεται) the TERMsoul, have no entrance (εἴσοδος) into it, and can neither turn (τρέψαι) nor move (κινῆσαι) it." The soul is sealed off from external causation: between the event and the disturbance there is no direct channel — the thing stands "outside," motionless (cf. 04-03: τὰ πράγματα… ἔξω ἕστηκεν ἀτρεμοῦντα).

The soul moves itself. "It turns and moves itself alone" (αὐτὴ ἑαυτὴν μόνη). Every agitation is self-generated: the source is not in the object but in the ruling part. Hence both responsibility and freedom: if I alone set myself in motion, then it depends on me alone to stay unmoved.

Things are as the judgments are. "Whatever DOGMAjudgments (κρίματα) the soul deems itself worthy of, into such it makes for itself the things that present themselves (τὰ προσυφεστῶτα)." The quality of what happens = the quality of my judgments: a thing becomes a "disaster" or an "indifferent" not of itself but by the verdict passed on it. This is Marcus's formula "life is judgment" (ὁ βίος ὑπόληψις, 04-03).

Discipline and parallels. The principal discipline is assent (disturbance from judgment, not from things). Parallels: Med. 4.3 (04-03) — the same teaching as a "ready-to-hand" principle; Epictetus Ench. 5 — "men are disturbed not by things but by their opinions about things."