It is always our choice whether or not we wish to pay the price for life’s rewards. And often it is best for us not to pay the price, for the price might be our integrity.
Death is not dreadful or else it would have appeared dreadful to Socrates.
For if we had any sense, what else should we do, both in public and in private, than sing hymns and praise the deity, and recount all the favours that he has conferred!
That is the way things are weighed and disagreements settled – when standards are established. Philosophy aims to test and set such standards. And the wise man is advised to make use of their findings right way.
For I am not Eternity, but a human being – a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour must pass!
Don’t concern yourself with other people’s business. It’s his problem if he receives you badly. And you cannot suffer for another person’s fault. So don’t worry about the behavior of other.
So if you like doing something, do it regularly; if you don’t like doing something, make a habit of doing something different.
Why are you pestering me, pal? My own evils are enough for me.
Stop honouring externals, quit turning yourself into the tool of mere matter, or of people who can supply you or deny you those material things.
Does anyone bathe hastily? Do not say that they do it ill, but hastily. Does anyone drink much wine? Do not say that they do ill, but that they drink a great deal. For unless you perfectly understand their motives, how should you know if they act ill? Thus you will not risk yielding to any appearances except those you fully comprehend.
Disease is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless the will itself chooses. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will. And add this reflection on the occasion of everything that happens; for you will find it an impediment to something else, but not to yourself.
If you are told that such an one speaks ill of you, make no defense against what was said, but answer, “He surely knows not my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these only!
Conduct yourself in all matters, grand and public or small and domestic, in accordance with the laws of nature. Harmonizing your will with nature should be your utmost ideal.
The knowledge of what is mine and what is not mine, what I can and cannot do. I must die. But must I die bawling? I must be exiled; but is there anything to keep me from going with a smile, calm and self-composed?
Most people are impulsive, however, and having committed to the thing, they persist, just making more confusion for themselves and others until it all end in mutual recrimination.
We aren’t filled with fear except by things that are bad; and not by them, either, as long as it is in our power to avoid them.
I want to die, even though I don’t have to.
You’d have a better chance persuading someone to change their sexual orientation than reaching people who have rendered themselves so deaf and blind.
People are ready to acknowledge some of their faults, but will admit to others only with reluctance.
The soul is like the bowl of water, with the soul’s impressions like the rays of light that strike the water. Now, if the water is disturbed, the light appears to be disturbed together with it – though of course it is not. So when someone loses consciousness, it is not the person’s knowledge and virtues that are impaired, it is the breath that contains them. Once the breath returns to normal, knowledge and the virtues are restored to normal also.