Dig within. Within is the wellspring of good; and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig.
Paraphrase
Not in these words. The idea is in Meditations (180), Book 7, section 59.
The real passage, shown below, is found word for word by program in the Greek original and in George Long’s English translation (1862).
- Work
- Meditations (Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν), 180
- The real passage
- Book 7, section 59
Researched by AI; closest passage located by program on 31 October 2026. Entry updated 27 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
The real passage
[…] For then thou wilt use them well, and they will be a material for thee to work on. Only attend to thyself, and resolve to be a good man in every act which thou doest: and remember …
Ἐφ’ ἑκάστου συμβάματος ἐκείνους πρὸ ὀμμάτων ἔχειν, οἷς τὰ αὐτὰ συνέβαινεν, ἔπειτα ἤχθοντο, ἐξενίζοντο, ἐμέμφοντο· νῦν οὗν ἐκεῖνοι ποῦ; οὐδαμοῦ. τί οὖν; καὶ σὺ θέλεις ὁμοίως; οὐχὶ δὲ τὰς μὲν ἀλλοτρίας τροπὰς καταλιπεῖν τοῖς τρέπουσι καὶ τρεπομένοις, αὐτὸς δὲ περὶ τὸ πῶς χρῆσθαι αὐτοῖς ὅλος γίνεσθαι; χρήσῃ γὰρ καλῶς καὶ ὕλη σοι ἔσται, μόνον πρόσεχε καὶ θέλε σεαυτῷ καλὸς εἶναι ἐπὶ παντός, οὖ πράσσεις, καὶ μέμνησο ἀμφοτέρων, ὅτι καὶ διάφορον ἐφ’ οὗ ἡ πρᾶξις.
Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.1
Ἔνδον σκάπτε, ἔνδον ἡ πηγὴ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ καὶ ἀεὶ ἀναβλύειν δυναμένη, ἐὰν ἀεὶ σκάπτῃς.
The body ought to be compact, and to show no irregularity either in motion or attitude. […]
Δεῖ καὶ τὸ σῶμα πεπηγέναι καὶ μὴ διερρῖφθαι μήτε ἐν κινήσει μήτε ἐν σχέσει. οἷον γάρ τι ἐπὶ τοῦ προσώπου παρέχεται ἡ διάνοια συνεστὼς αὐτὸ καὶ εὔσχημον συντηροῦσα, τοιοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ ὅλου τοῦ σώματος ἀπαιτητέον. πάντα δὲ ταῦτα σὺν τῷ ἀνεπιτηδεύτῳ φυλακτέα.
The art of life is more like the wrestler’s art than the dancer’s, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected.
Ἡ βιωτικὴ τῇ παλαιστικῇ ὁμοιοτέρα ἤπερ τῇ ὀρχηστικῇ κατὰ τὸ πρὸς τὰ ἐμπίπτοντα καὶ οὐ προεγνωσμενα ἕτοιμος καὶ ἀπτὼς ἑστάναι.
How the shared form came about
The popular wording is a modernised rendering of the passage at 7.59; Long has ‘Look within… fountain… bubble up’, the Greek has the verb σκάπτε ‘dig’. The translator of the popular wording was not identified.
In context
A short note in Book 7. The entry before it tells Marcus to keep in mind those who were vexed by the same things and are now nowhere; the one after it says the body should be compact and show no irregularity of motion.
What it says
The source of goodness is in one’s own mind, but it flows only if one keeps working at it.
Often misread
Often read as an invitation to self-discovery; the Greek asks for continual digging, effort that never stops.
Topics
Related quotes
- Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Ralph Waldo Emerson
- You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. Dr. Seuss
- The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. (misattributed) Epicurus
- No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. Epictetus
- If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Henry David Thoreau
Sources
- standardebooks.org/ebooks/marcus-aurelius/meditations/george-long/text/single-page (George Long translation, first published 1862; corpus meditations.en.txt, line 281)
- cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit@70427323b61267cdcd0256b9b02009c23392de07/data/tlg0562/tlg001/tlg0562.tlg001.perseus-grc2.xml (Greek text; corpus meditations.el.txt, line 334)
- en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius
Cite it
“Dig within. Within is the wellspring of good; and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig.” Attributed to Marcus Aurelius. Not in these words. The idea is in Meditations (180), Book 7, section 59. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/dig-within-the-fountain-of-good/ (checked 27 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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