Do nothing but what is necessary. ... By this rule a man has the double pleasure of making his actions good and few into the bargain. For the greater part of what we say and do, being unnecessary, if this were but taken away, we should have both more leisure and less disturbance. And therefore before a man sets forward, he should ask himself this question, "Am I not upon the verge of something unnecessary?"

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Do nothing but what is necessary. ... By this rule a man has the double pleasure of making his actions good and few into the bargain. For the greater part of what we say and do, being unnecessary, if this were but taken away, we should have both more leisure and less disturbance. And therefore before a man sets forward, he should ask himself this question, "Am I not upon the verge of something unnecessary?"" in the context of "Marcus Aurelius Antonius, Meditations, Book 4 (c. AD 121–180)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.