A Stoic technical term: ὁρμή is the movement of the soul toward action, the impulse. In the Stoic chain by which an act is generated: φαντασία (impression) → συγκατάθεσις (assent of the ruling part) → ὁρμή (impulse) → πρᾶξις (action). Impulse is therefore not a "blind passion" but a function of an evaluative judgment that has already been accepted; this is why responsibility for the act is located in the act of assent, not in the impulse itself.

SVF III 169–177 (the doctrine of ὁρμή as κίνησις ψυχῆς πρός τι, "a movement of the soul toward something"); DL VII 110–116; Stob. Ecl. II 86–87 W; LS 33, 53Q, 65. In Marcus: Med. 2.2; 3.1; 05-03; 05-14 (the impulses of reason issue from reason itself); 05-20 (when obstructed — impulse "with reservation"); 05-37 (good ὁρμαί — part of the good lot); 06-16; 06-27; 06-50; 07-04 (at every ὁρμή — track what is being done and to what aim); 07-62 (look into the πηγαί… ὁρμῆς of those whose praise you seek); 07-75 (the ἰδία ὁρμή of the cosmos's ruling part — in the book's closing disjunction); 08-01 (doctrines "from which the ὁρμαί and acts" flow); 08-07 (ὁρμαί directed only to κοινωνικὰ ἔργα; the rule τέλος ἐν ὁρμῇ τὸ κοινωνικόν, "the end in impulse is the common good"); 08-16 (the act is carried through κατὰ τὴν σὴν ὁρμήν — a change of mind is one's own too); 08-41 (ἐμποδισμὸς ὁρμῆς — an evil to the animal nature; the impulse "with reserve" is unharmed); 09-01 (ὁρμὴ ἀρχαία — the "original impulse" of providence by which all comes to be "in sequence"); 09-07 (στῆσαι ὁρμήν — "halt the impulse": the second member of the triad-by-negation); 09-21 (death is the παῦλα of ὁρμή, the "pause of impulse"; no evil); 09-28 (ἐφ’ ἕκαστον ὁρμᾷ ἡ τοῦ ὅλου διάνοια — "the mind of the Whole impels toward each thing"; accept its impulse); 09-31 (ὁρμὴ καὶ πρᾶξις terminating in κοινωνικῶς πρᾶξαι — impulse aimed at the social act); 9.6; 10-06 (πᾶσαν ὁρμὴν ἄξω πρὸς τὸ κοινῇ συμφέρον — direct every impulse to the common benefit and away from the contrary); 10-26 (another cause makes out of food αἴσθησιν καὶ ὁρμήν — impulse as a product of the hidden formative power); 11.37. In Book XII — 12-17 (ἡ γὰρ ὁρμή σου ἔστω — the sentence breaks off at a lacuna, and what the impulse is to be was never written). And 12-31 (τὸ ὁρμᾶν, one of the eight infinitives of the interrogation: what exactly do you want when you want to go on?). In Books I–IV: 02-07, 02-16, 03-01 (ὁρμᾶν among the functions that survive in senility), 03-06, 03-16 (ψυχῆς ὁρμαί — impulses are assigned to the soul, doctrines to the mind), 04-01, 04-22, 04-40.

In 02-02 ὁρμή is marked by the key predicate ἀκοινώνητος — "unsocial": the ruling part must not allow an antisocial impulse to jerk it about like a puppet on strings (see puppet). This is the locus of Marcus's discipline of action: the quality of an ὁρμή is determined by whether it is oriented toward the common good (TERMcooperation) or against it (antiprassein). Compare Med. 8.7 — the imperative to "direct every impulse to the common benefit" — and Epictetus' Ench. 2 — on "οἰκεία ὁρμή" ("one's own impulse," the only impulse that is up to us). See also 11-21 (πάσας τὰς ἰδίας ὁρμὰς ἀπευθύνων — "straightening" all private impulses toward one social aim, so that all acts come out of one kind); 11-37 (the Epictetan "department concerning impulses": keep τὸ προσεκτικόν on guard, with three conditions — μεθ’ ὑπεξαιρέσεως, κοινωνικαί, κατ’ ἀξίαν).