Stoic Snippets 244

There is no nature which is inferior to art, for the arts imitate the natures of things. 

But if this is so, that Nature which is the most perfect and the most comprehensive of all natures, cannot fall short of the skill of art. 

Now all arts do the inferior things for the sake of the superior; therefore the Universal Nature does so too. 

And, indeed, hence is the origin of justice, and in justice the other virtues have their foundation: for justice will not be observed, if we either care for middle things, the things indifferent, or are easily deceived and careless and changeable. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.10 

IMAGE: Francois Boucher, Allegory of Painting (1765)