Hast thou reason? I have. Why then makest thou not use of it? For if thy reason do her part, what more canst thou require?
A straightforward, honest person should be like someone who stinks: when you’re in the same room with him, you know it. But false straightforwardness is like a knife in the back.
How hast thou behaved hitherto to the gods, thy parents, brethren, children, teachers, to those who looked after thy infancy, to thy friends, kinsfolk, to thy slaves? Consider if thou hast hitherto behaved to all in such a way that this may be said of thee: Never has wronged a man in deed or word.
To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference. This is how we learn: by looking at each thing, both the parts and the whole. Keeping in mind that none of them can dictate how we perceive it. They don’t impose themselves on us. They hover before us, unmoving. It is we who generate the judgments – inscribing them on ourselves. And we don’t have to. We could leave the page blank – and if a mark slips through, erase it instantly.
Rest is for recharging, not for indulgence. Take only what is sufficient for your health and vitality. Too much rest – like too much food or drink – defeats its purpose, weakening the body and dulling the spirit.
33. How the mind conducts itself. It all depends on that. All the rest is within its power, or beyond its control – corpses and smoke.
In our relationships with others we must work for their collective good, while treating them justly and fairly as individuals.
What follows coheres with what went before. Not like a random catalogue whose order is imposed upon it arbitrarily, but logically connected. And just as what exists is ordered and harmonious, what comes into being betrays an order too. Not a mere sequence, but an astonishing concordance.
The world is maintained by change- in the elements and in the things they compose. That should be enough for you; treat it as an axiom.
13. Someone despises me. That’s their problem. Mine: not to do or say anything despicable. Someone hates me. Their problem. Mine: to be patient and cheerful with everyone, including them. Ready to show them their mistake. Not spitefully, or to show off my own self-control, but in an honest, upright way.
The character of thy mind will be such as is the character of thy frequent thoughts, for the soul takes its dye from the thoughts.
Does anything genuinely beautiful need supplementing? No more than justice does- or truth, or kindness, or humility. Are any of those improved by being praised? Or damaged by contempt? Is an emerald suddenly flawed if no one admires it?
All men suffer, but not all men pity themselves.
Men are born for the sake of each other. So either teach or tolerate.
One addition to the precepts already mentioned. Always make a definition or sketch of what presents itself to your mind, so you can see it stripped bare to its essential nature and identify it clearly, in whole and in all its parts, and can tell yourself its proper name and the names of those elements of which it is compounded and into which it will be dissolved.
Have you reason? I have. Why then do you not use it? When it performs its proper office what more do you require?
Sin is the the corruption of reason. That’s why humans are capable of such evils, while unreasoning animals are not.
Who himself is not the cause of his own unrest? Reflect how no one is hampered by any other; and that all is as thinking makes it so.
I have learned to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion.
Our life is a warfare, and a mere pilgrimage. Fame after life is no better than oblivion. What is it then that will adhere and follow? Only one thing, philosophy.