Place in the book. The closing passage of Book V — an etymological coda that ends the whole book on the note of the self-sufficiency of virtue. The principal discipline is desire (wherein happiness lies).

A good lot (εὔμοιρος). εὔμοιρος (literally "with a good TERMμοῖρα") is not one to whom a lot fell from outside, but one who TERMhas assigned himself a good lot (ἀγαθὴν μοῖραν). Marcus redefines "good fortune": it lies not in what befell you but in what you have assigned yourself.

What the good lot consists of. And that lot is DOGMA"good turns of the soul, good impulses, good deeds" (ἀγαθαὶ τροπαὶ TERMψυχῆς, TERMὁρμαί, πράξεις): three levels — disposition, impulse, act — and all of them TERMgood and all up to me. A play on etymology (εὐ-μοιρία ≈ εὐ-δαιμονία): happiness lies not in the lot that befell one but in one's own good acts. The book closes on the formula of the DOGMAself-sufficiency of virtue.

Discipline and parallels. The principal discipline is desire (happiness = one's own virtue). It continues 05-36 (not to imagine an external loss a harm). Parallels: 05-27 (εὐδαιμονία = a good δαίμων = the ruling part); 05-34 (the good lies in a just disposition and action); cf. Med. 7.17 (εὐδαιμονία is the work of a good δαίμων, i.e. the ruling part).