Book IV · 27
Either it is a well-arranged universe4 or a chaos huddled together, but still a universe. But can a certain order subsist in thee, and disorder in the All? And this too when all things are so separated and diffused and sympathetic.
Either there is a well-arranged Order of things or a medley that is confused, yet still an order. Or can a sort of order subsist in thee, while in the Universe there is no order, and that too when all things, though separated and dispersed, are still in sympathetic connexion?
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations IV.27. Translated by George Long (1862). The Stoic Library.