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Anything That Is Beautiful Is Beautiful Just As It Is. Praise Forms No Part Of Its Beauty, Since Praise Makes Things Neither Better Nor Worse. This Applies Even More To What It Commonly Called Beautiful: Natural Objects, For Example, Or Works Of Art. True Beauty Has No Need Of Anything Beyond Itself.

-Marcus Aurelius

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Anything That Is Beautiful

Marcus Aurelius

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Anything That Is Beautiful Is Beautiful Just As It Is. Praise Forms No Part Of Its Beauty, Since Praise Makes Things Neither Better Nor Worse. This Applies Even More To What It Commonly Called Beautiful: Natural Objects, For Example, Or Works Of Art. True Beauty Has No Need Of Anything Beyond Itself.

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Suppose That Thou Hast Detached Thyself From The Natural Unity... Yet Here There Is This Beautiful Provision, That It Is In Thy Power Again To Unite Thyself. God Has Allowed This To No Other Part, After It Has Been Separated And Cut Asunder, To Come Together Again. ...he Has Distinguished Man, For He Has Put It In His Power Not To Be Separated At All From The Universal ...he Has Allowed Him To Be Returned And To Be United And To Resume His Place As A Part.

Our Life Is What Our Thoughts Make It. Do Every Act Of Your Life As If It Were Your Last. In A Word, Your Life Is Short. You Must Make The Most Of The Present With The Aid Of Reason And Justice. Since It Is Possible That You May Be Quitting Life This Very Moment, Govern Every Act And Thought Accordingly.

Pass Then Through This Little Space Of Time Conformably To Nature, And End Thy Journey In Content, Just As An Olive Falls Off When It Is Ripe, Blessing Nature Who Produced It, And Thanking The Tree On Which It Grew.

Light May Earth's Crumbling Sand Be Laid On Thee, That Dogs May Dig Thy Bones Up Easily

Nothing Befalls Any Man Which He Is Not Fitted To Endure.

Do Not Act As If You Were Going To Live Ten Thousand Years. Death Hangs Over You. While You Live, While It Is In Your Power, Be Good.

Be Content With What You Are, And Wish Not Change; Nor Dread Your Last Day, Nor Long For It.

...if A Man Comes To His Fortieth Year, And Has Any Understanding At All, He Has Virtually Seen - Thanks To Their Similarity - All Possible Happenings, Both Past And To Come.

It Is A Base Thing For The Countenance To Be Obedient And To Regulate And Compose Itself As The Mind Commands, And For The Mind Not To Be Regulated And Composed By Itself.

If Any Man Should Conceive Certain Things As Being Really Good, Such As Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Fortitude, He Would Not After Having First Conceived These Endure To Listen To Anything Which Should Not Be In Harmony With What Is Really Good.

The Body Of An Actor Can Be Either His Best Friend Or His Worst Enemy.

If Someone Can Prove Me Wrong And Show Me My Mistake In Any Thought Or Action, I Shall Gladly Change. I Seek The Truth, Which Never Harmed Anyone: The Harm Is To Persist In One's Own Self-deception And Ignorance.

The Things You Think About Determine The Quality Of Your Mind. Your Soul Takes On The Color Of Your Thoughts.

Positive Thinking

Everything Is Here For A Purpose, From Horses To Vine Shoots. What's Surprising About That? Even The Sun Will Tell You, "i Have A Purpose," And The Other Goods As Well.

Regain Your Senses, Call Yourself Back, And Once Again Wake Up. Now That You Realize That Only Dreams Were Troubling You, View This 'reality' As You View Your Dreams.

For Nowhere Either With More Quiet Or More Freedom From Trouble Does A Man Retire Than Into His Own Soul, Particularly When He Has Within Him Such Thoughts That By Looking Into Them He Is Immediately In Perfect Tranquility; And I Affirm That Tranquility Is Nothing Else Than The Good Ordering Of The Mind.

So Much Worse Are The Consequences Of Anger Than Its Causes.

Live With The Gods. And He Does So Who Constantly Shows Them That His Soul Is Satisfied With What Is Assigned To Him.

One Of The Recurring Themes In Marcus' Handbook Is Leadership's Responsibility To Work Intelligently With What It Is Given And Not Waste Time Fantasizing About A World Of Flawless People And Perfect Choices.

Neither In Writing Nor In Reading Wilt Thou Be Able To Lay Down Rules For Others Before Thou Shalt Have First Learned To Obey Rules Thyself.

Today I Escaped All Circumstance, Or Rather I Cast Out All Circumstance, For It Was Not Outside Me, But Within My Judgements.

Nothing Proceeds From Nothingness, As Also Nothing Passes Away Into Non-existence.

One Universe Made Up All That Is; And One God In It All, And One Principle Of Being, And One Law, The Reason Shared By All Thinking Creatures, And One Truth.

Things Can Never Touch The Soul, But Stand Inert Outside It, So That Disquiet Can Arise Only From Fancies Within.

Be Not Careless In Deeds, Nor Confused In Words, Nor Rambling In Thought.

Live Not One's Life As Though One Had A Thousand Years, But Live Each Day As The Last.

The Healthy Eye Ought To See All Visible Things And Not To Say, I Wish For Green Things; For This Is The Condition Of A Diseased Eye.

Stop Talking About What The Good Man Is Like, And Just Be One.

Our Life Is What Our Thoughts Make It.

I Consist Of A Little Body And A Soul.

The Whole Contains Nothing Which Is Not Or Its Advantage; And All Natures Indeed Have This Common Principle, But The Nature Of The Universe Has This Principle Besides, That It Cannot Be Compelled Even By Any External Cause To Generate Anything Harmful To Itself.

Everything Is Interwoven, And The Web Is Holy; None Of Its Parts Are Unconnected. They Are Composed Harmoniously, And Together - They Compose The World.

It Is Possible To Depart From Life At This Moment. Have This Thought In Mind Whenever You Act, Speak, Or Think.

I Bless The Gods For Not Letting My Education In Rhetoric, Poetry, And Other Literary Studies Come Easily To Me, And Thereby Sparing Me From An Absorbing Interest In These Subjects.

I Seek The Truth...it Is Only Persistence In Self-delusion And Ignorance That Does Harm.

That Which Is Really Beautiful Has No Need Of Anything; Not More Than Law, Not More Than Truth, Not More Than Benevolence Or Modesty.

My Being Consists Of Matter And Form, That Is, Of Soul And Body; Annihilation Will Reach Neither Of Them, For They Were Never Produced Out Of Nothing. The Consequence Is, That Every Part Of Me Will Serve To Make Something In The World; And This Again Will Change Into Another Part Through An Infinite Succession Of Change. This Constant Method Of Alteration Gave Me My Being, And My Father Before Me, And So On To Eternity Backward: For I Think I May Speak Thus, Even Though The World Be Confined Within Certain Determinate Periods.

If Any Man Has Done Wrong, The Harm Is His Own. But Perhaps He Has Not Done Wrong.

In Man's Life, Time Is But A Moment; Being, A Flux; Sense Is Dim; The Material Frame Corruptible; Soul, An Eddy Of Breath; Fortune A Thing Inscrutable, And Fame Precarious.

A Man's True Delight Is To Do The Things He Was Made For.

If You Are Distressed By Something, It Is Due To Your Own Estimate Of It; And You Have The Power To Change It At Will.

Power To Change

I Will March On In The Path Of Nature Till My Legs Sink Under Me, And Then I Shall Be At Rest, And Expire Into That Air Which Has Given Me My Daily Breath.

Wilt Thou, Then, My Soul, Never Be Good And Simple And One And Naked, More Manifest Than The Body Which Surrounds Thee?

Think Of All The Years Passed By In Which You Said To Yourself "i'll Do It Tomorrow," And How The Gods Have Again And Again Granted You Periods Of Grace Of Which You Have Not Availed Yourself. It Is Time To Realize That You Are A Member Of The Universe, That You Are Born Of Nature Itself, And To Know That A Limit Has Been Set To Your Time. Use Every Moment Wisely, To Perceive Your Inner Refulgence, Or 'twill Be Gone And Nevermore Within Your Reach.

Procrastination

The Memory Of Everything Is Very Soon Overwhelmed In Time.

If You Are Pained By Any External Thing, It Is Not This Thing That Disturbs You, But Your Own Judgment About It. It Is In Your Power To Erase This Judgment About It. If Anything In Your Own Nature Gives You Pain, You Are Who Hinders You From Correcting Your Opinion.

I Cannot Comprehend How Any Man Can Want Anything But The Truth.

Is Your Cucumber Bitter? Throw It Away. Are There Briars In Your Path? Turn Aside. That Is Enough. Do Not Go On And Say, "why Were Things Of This Sort Ever Brought Into This World?" Neither Intolerable Nor Everlasting - If Thou Bearest In Mind That It Has Its Limits, And If Thou Addest Nothing To It In Imagination. Pain Is Either An Evil To The Body (then Let The Body Say What It Thinks Of It!)-or To The Soul. But It Is In The Power Of The Soul To Maintain Its Own Serenity And Tranquility. . . .

Accustom Yourself Not To Be Disregarding Of What Someone Else Has To Say: As Far As Possible Enter Into The Mind Of The Speaker.

Adapt Yourself To The Things Among Which Your Lot Has Been Cast And Love Sincerely The Fellow Creatures With Whom Destiny Has Ordained That You Shall Live.

Things That Have A Common Quality Ever Quickly Seek Their Kind.

Everything Is Interwoven, And The Web Is Holy.

If It Is Not Right Do Not Do It; If It Is Not True Do Not Say It.

It Is Man's Peculiar Duty To Love Even Those Who Wrong Him.

Always Bear This In Mind, That Very Little Indeed Is Necessary For Living A Happy Life.

Dress Not Thy Thoughts In Too Fine A Raiment. And Be Not A Man Of Superfluous Words Or Superfluous Deeds.

Do Not Be Ashamed Of Help.

When You Have Trouble Getting Out Of Bed In The Morning, Remember That Your Defining Characteristic-what Defines A Human Being-is To Work With Others.

Waste No More Time Arguing What A Good Man Should Be. Be One.

Past And Future Have No Power Over You. Just The Present - And Even That Can Be Minimized.

Death Hangs Over Thee, While Thou Still Live, While Thou May, Do Good.

Are You Distracted By Outward Cares? Then Allow Yourself A Space Of Quiet Wherein You Can Add To Your Knowledge Of The Good And Learn To Curb Your Restlessness. Nowhere Can A Man Find A Quieter Or More Untroubled Retreat Than In His Own Soul. Avail Yourself Often, Then, Of This Retirement, And So Continually Renew Yourself.

Keep Reminding Yourself Of The Way Things Are Connected, Of Great Relatedness. All Things Are Implicated In One Another And In Sympathy With Each Other. This Event Is The Consequence Of Some Other One. Things Push And Pull On Each Other, And Breathe Together, And Are One.

Direct Thy Attention To What Is Said. Let Thy Understanding Enter Into The Things That Are Doing And The Things Which Do Them.

What Does Not Benefit The Hive Is No Benefit To The Bee.

Every Instant Of Time... Is A Pinprick Of Eternity.

A Little Flesh, A Little Breath, And A Reason To Rule All - That Is Myself.

Men Exist For The Sake Of One Another.

You Need To Be Prepared For Firm Decisions And Action, Without Losing Gentleness Towards Those Who Obstruct Or Abuse You. It's As Great A Weakness To Be Angry With Them As It Is To Abandon Your Plan Of Action And Give Up Through Fear.

They Know Not How Many Things Are Signified By The Words Stealing, Sowing, Buying, Keeping Quiet, Seeing What Ought To Be Done; For This Is Not Effected By The Eyes, But By Another Kind Of Vision.

Unhappy Am I Because This Has Happened To Me.- Not So, But Happy Am I, Though This Has Happened To Me, Because I Continue Free From Pain, Neither Crushed By The Present Nor Fearing The Future.

The Soul Becomes Dyed With The Color Of Its Thoughts.

It Is Not The Weight Of The Future Or The Past That Is Pressing Upon You, But Ever That Of The Present Alone. Even This Burden, Too, Can Be Lessened If You Confine It Strictly To Its Own Limits.

Let It Judge That Nothing Is Either Bad Or Good Which Can Happen Equally To The Bad Man And The Good. For That Which Happens Equally To Him Who Lives Contrary To Nature And To Him Who Lives According To Nature, Is Neither According To Nature Nor Contrary To Nature.

In The Morning When Thou Risest Unwillingly, Let This Thought Be Present - I Am Rising To The Work Of A Human Being. Why Then Am I Dissatisfied If I Am Going To Do The Things For Which I Exist And For Which I Was Brought Into The World?

When Forced, As It Seems, By Your Environment To Be Utterly Disquieted, Return With All Speed Into Your Self, Staying In Discord No Longer Than You Must. By Constant Recurrence To The Harmony, You Will Gain More Command Over It.

It Is Satisfaction To A Man To Do The Proper Works Of A Man.

Continuously Thou Wilt Look At Human Things As Smoke And Nothing At All; Especially If Thou Reflectest At The Same Time, That What Has Once Changed Will Never Exist Again In The Infinite Duration Of Time. But Thou, In What A Brief Space Of Time Is Thy Existence? And Why Art Thou Not Content To Pass Through This Short Time In An Orderly Way?

The Only Thing That Isn't Worthless: To Live This Life Out Truthfully And Rightly, And Be Patience With Those Who Don't.

Keep Constantly In Mind In How Many Things You Yourself Have Witnessed Changes Already. The Universe Is Change, Life Is Understanding.

Men Are Born For Each Other's Sake, So Either Teach People Or Endure Them

Dig Within. There Lies The Wellspring Of Good.

Once You Have Done A Man A Service, What More Reward Would You Have? Is It Not Enough To Have Obeyed The Laws Of Your Own Nature, Without Expecting To Be Paid For It?

Nature Set A Limit On Sleep - As It Did On Eating And Drinking. And Youre Over The Limit. But Not Of Working. There Youre Still Below Your Quota. You Dont Love Yourself Enough. Or Youd Love Your Nature Too And What It Demands Of You. People Who Love What They Do Wear Themselves Down Doing It. They Even Forget To Wash And Eat.

Nature Insists On Whatever Benefits The Whole.

It Is A Shame For The Soul To Be First To Give Way In This Life, When Thy Body Does Not Give Way.

Everything Harmonizes With Me, Which Is Harmonious To Thee, O Universe. Nothing For Me Is Too Early Or Too Late, Which Is In Due Time For Thee.

We Must Press On Then, In Haste; Not Simply Because Every Hour Brings Us Nearer To Death, But Because Even Before Then Our Powers Of Perception And Comprehension Begin To Deteriorate.

Accept Whatever Comes To You Woven In The Pattern Of Your Destiny, For What Could More Aptly Fit Your Needs?

Cultivate These, Then, For They Are Wholly Within Your Power: Sincerity And Dignity; Industriousness; And Sobriety. Avoid Grumbling, Be Frugal, Considerate, And Frank; Be Temperate In Manner And Speech; Carry Yourself With Authority.

The Longest-lived And The Shortest-lived Man, When They Come To Die, Lose One And The Same Thing.

To My Great-grandfather I Owed The Advice To Dispense With The Education Of The Schools And Have Good Masters At Home Instead - And To Realize That No Expense Should Be Grudged For This Purpose.

The Act Of Dying Is One Of The Acts Of Life.

Say To Yourself In The Early Morning: I Shall Meet Today Ungrateful, Violent, Treacherous, Envious, Uncharitable Men. All Of These Things Have Come Upon Them Through Ignorance Of Real Good And Ill... I Can Neither Be Harmed By Any Of Them, For No Man Will Involve Me In Wrong, Nor Can I Be Angry With My Kinsman Or Hate Him; For We Have Come Into The World To Work Together.

Art Thou Angry With Him Whose Armpits Stink? Art Thou Angry With Him Whose Mouth Smells Foul?

From My Grandfather's Father, I Learned To Dispense With Attendance At Public Schools, And To Enjoy Good Teachers At Home, And To Recognize That On Such Things Money Should Be Eagerly Spent.

Observe Constantly That All Things Take Place By Change, And Accustom Thyself To Consider That The Nature Of The Universe Loves Nothing So Much As To Change The Things Which Are, And To Make New Things Like Them.

Here Is The Rule To Remember In The Future, When Anything Tempts You To Be Bitter: Not, 'this Is A Misfortune' But 'to Bear This Worthily Is Good Fortune.'

The Impediment To Action Advances Action. What Stands In The Way Becomes The Way.

Look Within. Within Is The Fountain Of Good, And It Will Ever Bubble Up, If Thou Wilt Ever Dig.

Self Confidence

That Which Makes The Man No Worse Than He Was Makes His Life No Worse: It Has No Power To Harm, Without Or Within.

Thou Seest How Few Be The Things, The Which If A Man Has At His Command His Life Flows Gently On And Is Divine.

Life Is Short. Do Not Forget About The Most Important Things In Our Life, Living For Other People And Doing Good For Them.

From Apollonius I Learned Freedom Of Will And Undeviating Steadiness Of Purpose; And To Look To Nothing Else, Not Even For A Moment, Except To Reason.

Take Care That You Entertain No Notions Unsuitable To Virtue And Reasonable Nature.

Stick To What's In Front Of You - Idea, Action, Utterance.

A Man's Happiness,-to Do The Things Proper To Man.

Life Is A Campaign, A Brief Staying In A Strange Region.

The World Is Mere Change, And This Life, Opinion.

Reason And The Reasoning Faculty Need No Foreign Assistance, But Are Sufficient For Their Own Purposes. They Move Within Themselves, And Make Directly For The Point In View. Wherefore, Acts In Accordance With Them Are Called Right Acts, For They Lead Along The Right Road.

Never Let The Future Disturb You. You Will Meet It, If You Have To, With The Same Weapons Of Reason Which Today Arm You Against The Present.

Remember That There Is A God Who Desires Neither Praise Nor Glory From Men Created In His Image, But Rather That They, Guided By The Understanding Given Them, Should In Their Actions Become Like Unto Him.

This Is Moral Perfection: To Live Each Day As Though It Were The Last; To Be Tranquil, Sincere, Yet Not Indifferent To One's Fate.

Nothing That Goes On In Anyone Else's Mind Can Harm You.

My City And State Are Rome. But As A Human Being? The World. So For Me, "good" Can Only Mean What's Good For Both Communities.

I Am Called To Man's Labour; Why Then Do I Make A Difficulty If I Am Going Out To Do What I Was Born To Do And What I Was Brought Into The World For?

‎"begin The Morning By Saying To Thyself, I Shall Meet With The Busy-body, The Ungrateful, Arrogant, Deceitful, Envious, Unsocial

Look Deep Into The Hearts Of Men, And See What Delights And Disgusts The Wise.

Or Is It Your Reputation That's Bothering You? But Look At How Soon We're All Forgotten. The Abyss Of Endless Time That Swallows It All. The Emptiness Of Those Applauding Hands. The People Who Praise Us; How Capricious They Are, How Arbitrary. And The Tiny Region It Takes Place. The Whole Earth A Point In Space - And Most Of It Uninhabited.

In Death, Alexander Of Macedon's End Differed No Whit From His Stable-boy's. Either Both Were Received Into The Same Generative Principle Of The Universe, Or Both Alike Were Dispersed Into Atoms.

Nothing Happens To Any Man That He Is Not Formed By Nature To Bear.

Such As Are Thy Habitual Thoughts, Such Also Will Be The Character Of Thy Mind; For The Soul Is Dyed By The Thoughts.

Live Not As Though There Were A Thousand Years Ahead Of You. Fate Is At Your Elbow; Make Yourself Good While Life And Power Are Still Yours.

Where Life Is Possible At All, A Right Life Is Possible; Life In A Palace Is Possible; Therefore Even In A Palace A Right Life Is Possible.

Remember That Neither The Future Nor The Past Pains Thee, But Only The Present. But This Is Reduced To A Very Little, If Thou Only Circumscribest It, And Chidest Thy Mind, If It Is Unable To Hold Out Against Even This.

Remember That Even If You Were To Live For Three Thousand Years, Or Thirty Thousand, You Could Not Lose Any Other Life Than The One You Have, And There Will Be No Other Life After It. So The Longest And The Shortest Lives Are The Same. The Present Moment Is Shared By All Living Creatures, But The Time That Is Past Is Gone Forever. No One Can Lose The Past Or The Future, For If They Don't Belong To You, How Can They Be Taken From You?

Think Of What You Have Rather Than Of What You Lack. Of The Things You Have, Select The Best And Then Reflect How Eagerly You Would Have Sought Them If You Did Not Have Them.

What We Cannot Bear Removes Us From Life; What Remains Can Be Borne.

All That Is Not Eternal Is Eternally Out Of Date. C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves Life Is Short. Eternity Is Long. Bentley Little, His Father's Son What We Do Now Echoes In Eternity.

Think On This Doctrine, - That Reasoning Beings Were Created For One Another's Sake; That To Be Patient Is A Branch Of Justice, And That Men Sin Without Intending It.

Always Run To The Short Way; And The Short Way Is The Natural: Accordingly Say And Do Everything In Conformity With The Soundest Reason. For Such A Purpose Frees A Man From Trouble, And Warfare, And All Artifice And Ostentatious Display.

In An Expression Of True Gratitude, Sadness Is Conspicuous Only By Its Absence

Blot Out Vain Pomp; Check Impulse; Quench Appetite; Keep Reason Under Its Own Control.

Think Not So Much Of What Thou Hast Not As Of What Thou Hast: But Of The Things Which Thou Hast, Select The Best, And Then Reflect How Eagerly They Would Have Been Sought, If Thou Hadst Them Not. At The Same Time, However, Take Care That Thou Dost Not, Through Being So Pleased With Them, Accustom Thyself To Overvalue Them, So As To Be Disturbed If Ever Thou Shouldst Not Have Them.

What Springs From Earth Dissolves To Earth Again, And Heaven-born Things Fly To Their Native Seat.

Begin Each Day By Telling Yourself: Today I Shall Be Meeting With Interference, Ingratitude, Insolence, Disloyalty, Ill-will, And Selfishness – All Of Them Due To The Offenders’ Ignorance Of What Is Good Or Evil.

A Man Makes No Noise Over A Good Deed, But Passes On To Another As A Vine To Bear Grapes Again In Season.

Look Deeply. Don't Miss The Inherent Quality And Value Of Everything.

Take Away Your Opinion, And Then There Is Taken Away The Complaint, 'i Have Been Harmed.' Take Away The Complaint, 'i Have Been Harmed,' And The Harm Is Taken Away.

He Would Be The Finer Gentleman That Should Leave The World Without Having Tasted Of Lying Or Pretence Of Any Sort, Or Of Wantonness Or Conceit.

Everything - A Horse, A Vine - Is Created For Some Duty... For What Task, Then, Were You Yourself Created?

The True Worth Of A Man Is To Be Measured By The Objects He Pursues.

A Person's Life Is Dyed With The Color Of His Imagination.

If You Are Pained By Any External Thing, It Is Not This That Disturbs You, But Your Own Judgment About It.

Limit Time To The Present. Meditate Upon Your Last Hour.

Time Is A Kind Of River, An Irresistible Flood Sweeping Up Men And Events And Carrying Them Headlong, One After The Other, To The Great Sea Of Being.

All That Is From The Gods Is Full Of Providence.

The Man Who Has A House Everywhere Has A Home Nowhere

All Those Things At Which Thou Wishest To Arrive By A Circuitous Road, Thou Canst Have Now, If Thou Dost Not Refuse Them To Thyself.

Everything That Happens Either Happens In Such A Way As You Are Formed By Nature To Bear It, Or As You Are Not Formed By Nature To Bear It.

Everything Is Only For A Day, Both That Which Remembers And That Which Is Remembered. Observe Constantly That All Things Take Place By Change, And Accustom Thyself To Consider That The Nature Of The Universe Loves Nothing So Much As To Change The Things Which Are And To Make New Things Like Them. For Everything That Exists Is In A Manner The Seed Of That Which Will Be.

Everything That Happens Happens As It Should, And If You Observe Carefully, You Will Find This To Be So.

Turn Thy Thoughts Now To The Consideration Of Thy Life, Thy Life As A Child, As A Youth, Thy Manhood, Thy Old Age, For In These Also Every Change Was A Death. Is This Anything To Fear?

Everywhere And At All Times It Is In Thy Power Piously To Acquiesce In Thy Present Condition, And To Behave Justly To Those Who Are About Thee, And To Exert Thy Skill Upon Thy Present Thoughts, That Nothing Shall Steal Into Them Without Being Well Examined.

Death, Like Birth, Is One Of Nature's Mysteries, The Combining Of Primal Elements And Dissolving Of The Same Into The Same.

Imagine You Were Now Dead, Or Had Not Lived Before His Moment. Now View The Rest Of Your Life As A Bonus.

Rest Of Your Life

Dig Inside. Inside Is The Fountain Of Good, And It Will Forever Flow, If You Will Forever Dig.

Our Anger And Annoyance Are More Detrimental To Us Than The Things Themselves Which Anger Or Annoy Us.

Either An Ordered Universe Or A Medley Heaped Together Mechanically But Still An Order; Or Can Order Subsist In You And Disorder In The Whole! And That, Too, When All Things Are So Distinguished And Yet Intermingled And Sympathetic.

Purge Your Mind Of All Aimless And Idle Thoughts, Especially Those That Pry Into The Affairs Of Others Or Wish Them Ill.

Alexander The Great And His Mule Driver Both Died And The Same Thing Happened To Both.

Look Back Over The Past, With Its Changing Empires That Rose And Fell, And You Can Foresee The Future, Too.

Receive The Gifts Of Fortune Without Pride, And Part With Them Without Reluctance.

This Is The Chief Thing: Be Not Perturbed, For All Things Are According To The Nature Of The Universal.

Things Themselves Cannot Touch The Soul, Not In The Least Degree, Nor Have They Admission To The Soul Nor Can They Turn Or Move The Soul: It Turns And Moves Itself Alone And Whatever Judgment It May Think Proper To Make, Such It Makes By Remaking For Itself The Things That Present Themselves To It

The Universe Is Transformation: Life Is Opinion.

Give Yourself A Gift: The Present Moment.

A Man Should Always Have These Two Rules In Readiness. First, To Do Only What The Reason Of Your Ruling And Legislating Faculties Suggest For The Service Of Man. Second, To Change Your Opinion Whenever Anyone At Hand Sets You Right And Unsettles You In An Opinion, But This Change Of Opinion Should Come Only Because You Are Persuaded That Something Is Just Or To The Public Advantage, Not Because It Appears Pleasant Or Increases Your Reputation.

God Sees The Inner Spirit Stripped Of Flesh, Skin, And All Debris. For His Own Mind Only Touches The Spirit That He Has Allowed To Flow From Himself Into Our Bodies. And If You Can Act The Same Way, You Will Rid Yourself Of All Suffering. For Surely If You Are Not Preoccupied With The Body That Encloses You, You Will Not Trouble Yourself About Clothes, Houses, Fame, And Other Showy Trappings.

A Man Should Be Upright, Not Kept Upright.

This Thou Must Always Bear In Mind, What Is The Nature Of The Whole.

People Exist For One Another.

The Happiness Of Your Life Depends Upon The Quality Of Your Thoughts: Therefore, Guard Accordingly, And Take Care That You Entertain No Notions Unsuitable To Virtue And Reasonable Nature.

Never Value Anything As Profitable To Thyself Which Shall Compel Thee To Break Thy Promise, To Lose Thy Self-respect, To Hate Any Man, To Suspect, To Curse, To Act The Hypocrite, To Desire Anything Which Needs Walls And Curtains.

In The Life Of A Man, His Time Is But A Moment, His Being An Incessant Flux, His Sense A Dim Rushlight, His Body A Prey Of Worms, His Soul An Unquiet Eddy, His Fortune Dark, His Fame Doubtful. In Short, All That Is Body Is As Coursing Waters, All That Is Of The Soul As Dreams And Vapors.

Man Is Born For Deeds Of Kindness.

As Far As You Can, Get Into The Habit Of Asking Yourself In Relation To Any Action Taken By Another: "what Is His Point Of Reference Here?" But Begin With Yourself: Examine Yourself First.

Without A Purpose, Nothing Should Be Done.

Whatever The Universal Nature Assigns To Any Man At Any Time Is For The Good Of That Man At That Time.

Retire Into Thyself. The Rational Principle Which Rules Has This Nature, That It Is Content With Itself When It Does What Is Just, And So Secures Tranquility.

Soon You Will Have Forgotten The World, And Soon The World Will Have Forgotten You.

How Much More Grievous Are The Consequences Of Anger Than The Causes Of It.

Remember That Very Little Is Needed To Make A Happy Life.

He That Lives Alone Lives In Danger; Society Avoids Many Dangers.

You Don't Have To Turn This Into Something. It Doesn't Have To Upset You. Things Can't Shape Our Decisions By Themselves.

He Who Eats My Bread, Does My Will.

Your Mind Will Take On The Character Of Your Most Frequent Thoughts: Souls Are Dyed By Thoughts.

Live Out Your Life In Truth And Justice, Tolerant Of Those Who Are Neither True Nor Just.

Truth And Justice

Be Like The Rocky Headland On Which The Waves Constantly Break. It Stands Firm, And Round It The Seething Waters Are Laid To Rest.

Letting Go All Else, Cling To The Following Few Truths. Remember That Man Lives Only In The Present, In This Fleeting Instant: All The Rest Of His Life Is Either Past And Gone, Or Not Yet Revealed. This Mortal Life Is A Little Thing, Lived In A Little Corner Of The Earth; And Little, Too, Is The Longest Fame To Come - Dependent As It Is On A Succession Of Fast-perishing Little Men Who Have No Knowledge Even Of Their Own Selves, Much Less Of One Long Dead And Gone.

Failing To Understand The Workings Of One's Own Mind Is Bound To Lead To Unhappiness.

Frightened Of Change? But What Can Exist Without It? What's Closer To Nature's Heart? Can You Take A Hot Bath And Leave The Firewood As It Was? Eat Food Without Transforming It? Can Any Vital Process Take Place Without Something Being Changed? Can't You See? It's Just The Same With You - And Just As Vital To Nature.

The Constant Recollection Of Death Is The Test Of Human Conduct.

As Surgeons Keep Their Instruments And Knives Always At Hand For Cases Requiring Immediate Treatment, So Shouldst Thou Have Thy Thoughts Ready To Understand Things Divine And Human, Remembering In Thy Every Act, Even The Smallest, How Close Is The Bond That Unites The Two.

Everything Is Mere Opinion.

Either All Things Proceed From One Intelligent Source And Come Together As In One Body, And The Part Ought Not To Find Fault With What Is Done For The Benefit Of The Whole; Or There Are Only Atoms, And Nothing Else Than A Mixture And Dispersion. Why, Then, Art Thou Disturbed? Say To This Ruling Faculty, Art Thou Dead, Art Thou Corrupted, Art Thou Playing The Hypocrite, Art Thou Become A Beast, Dost Thou Herd And Feed With The Rest?

Do Not Suffer A Sudden Impression To Overbear Your Judgment.

My Only Fear Is Doing Something Contrary To Human Nature - The Wrong Thing, The Wrong Way, Or At The Wrong Time.

It Is Within Our Power Not To Make A Judgement About Something, And So Not Disturb Our Minds; For Nothing In Itself Possesses The Power To Form Our Judgements.

Let Your One Delight And Refreshment Be To Pass From One Service To The Community To Another, With God Ever In Mind.

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