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Do Not Waste What Remains Of Your Life In Speculating About Your Neighbors, Unless With A View To Some Mutual Benefit. To Wonder What So-and-so Is Doing And Why, Or What He Is Saying, Or Thinking, Or Scheming -- In A Word, Anything That Distracts You From Fidelity To The Ruler Within You -- Means A Loss Of Opportunity For Some Other Task.

-Marcus Aurelius

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Do Not Waste What

Marcus Aurelius

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Do Not Waste What Remains Of Your Life In Speculating About Your Neighbors, Unless With A View To Some Mutual Benefit. To Wonder What So-and-so Is Doing And Why, Or What He Is Saying, Or Thinking, Or Scheming -- In A Word, Anything That Distracts You From Fidelity To The Ruler Within You -- Means A Loss Of Opportunity For Some Other Task.

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He Who Pays No Attention To What His Neighbor Does, Says Or Thinks, Preferring To Concentrate On Making His Own Actions Appropriate And Justifiable, Better Uses His Time.

Remember This - That There Is A Proper Dignity And Proportion To Be Observed In The Performance Of Every Act Of Life.

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.

People Who Labor All Their Lives But Have No Purpose To Direct Every Thought And Impulse Toward Are Wasting Their Time-even When Hard At Work.

Know The Joy Of Life By Piling Good Deed On Good Deed Until No Rift Or Cranny Appears Between Them.

The Substance Of The Universe Is Obedient And Compliant; And The Reason Which Governs It Has In Itself No Cause For Doing Evil, For It Has No Malice, Nor Does It Do Evil To Anything, Nor Is Anything Harmed By It. But All Things Are Made And Perfected According To This Reason.

The Best Revenge Is To Be Unlike Him Who Performed The Injury.

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

Accept The Things To Which Fate Binds You, And Love The People With Whom Fate Brings You Together, But Do So With All Your Heart.

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.

Look To The Essence Of A Thing, Whether It Be A Point Of Doctrine, Of Practice, Or Of Interpretation.

Be Satisfied With Your Business, And Learn To Love What You Were Bred To.

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

Self Confidence

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

Why Should Anyone Be Afraid Of Change? What Can Take Place Without It? What Can Be More Pleasing Or More Suitable To Universal Nature? Can You Take Your Bath Without The Firewood Undergoing A Change? Can You Eat Without The Food Undergoing A Change? And Can Anything Useful Be Done Without Change? Don't You See That For You To Change Is Just The Same, And Is Equally Necessary For Universal Nature?

When Men Hate Or Blame You, Or Say Hurtful Things About You, Look Deeply Into Their Hearts And See What Kind Of Men They Are. You'll See How Unnecessary It Is To Strain After Their Good Opinion. Yet You Must Still Think Kindly Of Them. They Are Your Neighbors. The Gods Help Them As They Do You, By Dreams And Oracles, To Win Their Hearts' Desires.

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.

Search Men's Governing Principles, And Consider The Wise, What They Shun And What They Cleave To.

The Wise Man Sees In The Misfortune Of Others What He Should Avoid.

The Gods Sustain And Guide All Their Works.

Death - A Stopping Of Impressions Through The Senses, And Of The Pulling Of The Cords Of Motion, And Of The Ways Of Thought, And Of Service To The Flesh.

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.

My True Self Is Free. I Cannot Be Contained.

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.

People Find Pressure In Different Ways. I Find It In Keeping My Mind Clear. In Not Turning Away From People Or The Things That Happen To Them. In Accepting And Welcoming Everything I See. In Treating Each Thing As It Deserves.

On The Occasion Of Every Act Ask Thyself, How Is This With Respect To Me? Shall I Repent Of It? A Little Time And I Am Dead, And All Is Gone.

Be Like The Cliff Against Which The Waves Continually Break; But It Stands Firm And Tames The Fury Of The Water Around It.

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

No One Was Ever Injured By The Truth; But He Who Persists In Self-deception And Ignorance Is Injured.

As For Life, It Is A Battle And A Sojourning In A Strange Land; But The Fame That Comes After Is Oblivion.

External Things Are Not The Problem. It's Your Assessment Of Them. Which You Can Erase Right Now.

Even While A Thing Is In The Act Of Coming Into Existence, Some Part Of It Has Already Ceased To Be.

If You Are Pained By External Things, It Is Not They That Disturb You, But Your Own Judgement Of Them. And It Is In Your Power To Wipe Out That Judgement Now.

Each Of Us Lives Only Now, This Brief Instant. The Rest Been Lived Already, Or Is Impossible To See. The Span We Live Is Small - Small As The Corner Of The Earth In Which We Live It.

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.

Consider That Everything Is Opinion, And Opinion Is In Thy Power.

We Are Born For Cooperation, As Are The Feet, The Hands, The Eyelids, And The Upper And Lower Jaws.

When You Need Encouragement, Think Of The Qualities The People Around You Have: This One's Energy, That One's Modesty, Another's Generosity, And So On. Nothing Is As Encouraging As When Virtues Are Visibly Embodied In The People Around Us, When We're Practically Showered With Them. It's Good To Keep This In Mind.

Leave Other People's Mistakes Where They Lie.

The Intelligence Of The Universe Is Social.

Though You Break Your Heart, Men Will Go On As Before.

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.

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

Live A Good Life. If There Are Gods And They Are Just, Then They Will Not Care How Devout You Have Been, But Will Welcome You Based On The Virtues You Have Lived By. If There Are Gods, But Unjust, Then You Should Not Want To Worship Them. If There Are No Gods, Then You Will Be Gone, But Will Have Lived A Noble Life That Will Live On In The Memories Of Your Loved Ones.

When Jarred, Unavoidably, By Circumstance Revert At Once To Yourself And Don't Lose The Rhythm More Than You Can Help. You'll Have A Better Grasp Of Harmony If You Keep Going Back To It.

He That Dies In Extreme Old Age Will Be Reduced To The Same State With Him That Is Cut Down Untimely.

Whosoever Does Wrong, Wrongs Himself; Whosoever Does Injustice, Does It To Himself, Making Himself Evil.

Let Men See, Let Them Know, A Real Man, Who Lives As He Was Meant To Live.

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.

Were You To Live Three Thousand Years, Or Even Thirty Thousand, Remember That The Sole Life Which A Man Can Lose Is That Which He Is Living At The Moment; And Furthermore, That He Can Have No Other Life Except The One He Loses.

Men Despise One Another And Flatter One Another; And Men Wish To Raise Themselves Above One Another, And Crouch Before One Another.

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

Just As The Sand-dunes, Heaped One Upon Another, Hide Each The First, So In Life The Former Deeds Are Quickly Hidden By Those That Follow After.

But If Anything In Thy Own Dispositiongives Thee Pain, Who Hinders Thee From Correcting Thy Opinion? And Even If Thou Art Pained Because Thou Art Not Doing Some Particular Thing Which Seems To Thee To Be Right, Why Dost Thou Not Rather Act Than Complain?- But Some Insuperable Obstacle Is In The Way?- Do Not Be Grieved Then, For The Cause Of Its Not Being Done Depends Not On Thee.- But It Is Not Worth While To Live If This Cannot Be Done.- Take Thy Departure Then From Life Contentedly, Just As He Dies Who Is In Full Activity, And Well Pleased Too With The Things Which Are Obstacles.

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

Find Joy In Simplicity, Self-respect, And Indifference To What Lies Between Virtue And Vice. Love The Human Race. Follow The Divine.

To Her Who Gives And Takes Back All, To Nature, The Man Who Is Instructed And Modest Says, Give What Thou Wilt; Take Back What Thou Wilt. And He Says This Not Proudly, But Obediently And Well Pleased With Her.

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

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

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.

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.

Try To Live The Life Of The Good Man Who Is More Than Content With What Is Allocated To Him.

We Are Too Much Accustomed To Attribute To A Single Cause That Which Is The Product Of Several, And The Majority Of Our Controversies Come From That.

If Any Man Despises Me, That Is His Problem. My Only Concern Is Not Doing Or Saying Anything Deserving Of Contempt.

How Ridiculous And How Strange To Be Surprised At Anything Which Happens In Life

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

Remember That To Change Your Mind And Follow Him Who Sets You Right Is To Be None The Less Free Than You Were Before.

Spend Your Brief Moment According To Nature's Law, And Serenely Greet The Journey's End As An Olive Falls When It Is Ripe, Blessing The Branch That Bare It, And Giving Thanks To The Tree That Gave It Life.

Ambition Means Tying Your Well-being To What Other People Say Or Do. Self-indulgence Means Tying It To The Things That Happen To You. Sanity Means Tying It To Your Own Actions.

Tranquility Is Nothing Else Than The Good Ordering Of The Mind.

No One Wearies Of Benefits Received.

Whatever Any One Does Or Says, I Must Be Good; Just As If The Emerald Were Always Saying This: "whatever Any One Does Or Says, I Must Still Be Emerald, And Keep My Color.

No Longer Let Thy Breathing Only Act In Concert With The Air Which Surrounds Thee, But Let Thy Intelligence Also Now Be In Harmony With The Intelligence Which Embraces All Things. For The Intelligent Power Is No Less Diffused In All Parts And Pervades All Things For Him Who Is Willing To Draw It To Him Than The Aërial Power For Him Who Is Able To Respire It.

Your Task Is To Stand Straight; Not To Be Held Straight.

The Universe Is Transformation: Life Is Opinion.

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.

All Things Are In The Act Of Change; Thou Thyself In Ceaseless Transformation And Partial Decay, And The Whole Universe With Thee.

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

Death Is A Release From The Impressions Of The Senses, And From Desires That Make Us Their Puppets, And From The Vagaries Of The Mind, And From The Hard Service Of The Flesh.

Socrates Used To Call The Opinions Of The Many By The Name Of Lamiae, Bugbears To Frighten Children.

Take The Shortest Route. The One That Nature Planned - To Speak And Act In The Healthiest Way. Do That, And Be Free Of Pain And Stress, Free Of All Calculations And Pretension.

The World Is Nothing But Change, Our Life Is Only Perception.

Submit To The Fate Of Your Own Free Will.

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.

I Have Often Wondered How It Is That Every Man Loves Himself More Than All The Rest Of Men, But Yet Sets Less Value On His Own Opinions Of Himself Than On The Opinions Of Others.

Others Opinions

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; And To Be Always The Same, In Sharp Pains, On The Occasion Of The Loss Of A Child, And In Long Illness.

The Only Wealth Which You Will Keep Forever Is The Wealth You Have Given Away.

Keep Moving Forward

It Is Right That Man Should Love Those Who Have Offended Him. He Will Do So When He Remembers That All Men Are His Relations, And That It Is Through Ignorance And Involuntarily That They Sin,--and Then We All Die So Soon.

If This Is Neither My Own Badness, Nor An Effect Of My Own Badness, And The Common Weal Is Not Injured, Why Am I Troubled About It? And What Is The Harm To The Common Weal?

To Understand The True Quality Of People, You Must Look Into Their Minds, And Examine Their Pursuits And Aversions.

Prize That Which Is Best In The Universe; And This Is That Which Useth Everything And Ordereth Everything.

...in The Ways Of Nature There Is No Evil To Be Found.

All Men Are Made One For Another: Either Then Teach Them Better Or Bear With Them.

Everything Is Mere Opinion.

In Reading And Writing, You Cannot Lay Down Rules Until You Have Learnt To Obey Them. Much More So In Life.

Reading And Writing

Flinch Not, Neither Give Up Nor Despair, If The Achieving Of Every Act In Accordance With Right Principle Is Not Always Continuous With Thee.

Pray Look Upon The Plants And Birds, The Ants, Spiders, And Bees, And You Will See Them All Exerting Their Nature, And Busy In Their Station. Pray, Shall Not A Man Act Like A Man?

"sweep Me Up And Send Me Where You Please." For There I Will Retain My Spirit, Tranquil And Content, As Long As It Can Feel And Act In Harmony With Its Own Nature. Is A Change Of Place Enough Reason For My Soul To Become Unhappy And Worn, For Me To Become Depressed, Humbled, Cowering, And Afraid? Can You Discover Any Reasons For This?

One Whose Chief Regard Is For His Own Mind, And For The Divinity Within Him And The Service Of Its Goodness, Will Strike No Poses, Utter No Complaints, And Crave Neither For Solitude Nor Yet For A Crowd. Best Of All, His Life Will Be Free From Continual Pursuing And Avoiding.

All Those [events In History] Were Such Dramas As We See Now, Only With Different Actors.

Why Should We Feel Anger At The World? As If The World Would Notice?

...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.

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

This Is Enough. Do Not Add, And Why Were Such Things Made In The World?

Consider Frequently The Connection Of All Things In The Universe And Their Relation To One Another. For Things Are Somehow Implicated With One Another, And All In A Way Friendly To One Another.

What Matter And Opportunity [for Thy Activity] Art Thou Avoiding? For What Else Are All These Things, Except Exercises For The Reason, When It Has Viewed Carefully And By Examination Into Their Nature The Things Which Happen In Life? Persevere Then Until Thou Shalt Have Made These Things Thy Own, As The Stomach Which Is Strengthened Makes All Things Its Own, As The Blazing Fire Makes Flame And Brightness Out Of Everything That Is Thrown Into It.

The Whole Universe Is Change And Life Itself Is But What You Deem It - Either Gratefully Better Than Or Bitterly Worse Than Something Else That You Alone Choose.

Constantly Contemplate The Whole Of Time And The Whole Of Substance, And Consider That All Individual Things As To Substance Are A Grain Of A Fig, And As To Time The Turning Of A Gimlet .

Enter Others' Minds And Let Them Enter Yours.

A Man Should Be Upright, Not Kept Upright.

Vex Not Thy Spirit At The Course Of Things; They Heed Not Thy Vexation. How Ludicrous And Outlandish Is Astonishment At Anything That May Happen In Life.

Reject Your Sense Of Injury, And The Injury Itself Disappears.

From Plato: The Man Who Has An Elevated Mind And Takes A View Of All Time And Of All Substance, Dost Thou Suppose It Possible For Him To Think That Human Life Is Anything Great? It Is Not Possible, He Said. Such A Man Then Will Think That Death Also Is No Evil.

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

The Stone That Is Thrown Into The Air Is None The Worse For Falling Down, And None The Better For Going Up.

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.

Because Other People Are Fools, Must You Be So Too?

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.

To No Man Make Yourself A Boon Companion: Your Joy Will Be Less But Less Will Be Your Grief

Leave The Wrong Done By Another Where The Wrong Arose.

Whenever You Are About To Find Fault With Someone, Ask Yourself The Following Question: What Fault Of Mine Most Nearly Resembles The One I Am About To Criticize?

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

There Is No Man So Blessed That Some Who Stand By His Deathbed Won't Hail The Occasion With Delight.

Failure To Read What Is Happening In Another's Soul Is Not Easily Seen As A Cause Of Unhappiness: But Those Who Fail To Attend The Motions Of Their Own Soul Are Necessarily Unhappy.

I, Who Have Never Willfully Pained Another, Have No Business To Pain Myself.

Each Of Us Needs What Nature Gives Us, When Nature Gives Us.

When Another Blames You Or Hates You, Or People Voice Similar Criticisms, Go To Their Souls, Penetrate Inside And See What Sort Of People They Are. You Will Realize That There Is No Need To Be Racked With Anxiety That They Should Hold Any Particular Opinion About You.

The Universal Nature Has No External Space; But The Wondrous Part Of Her Art Is That Though She Has Circumscribed Herself, Everything Which Is Within Her Which Appears To Decay And To Grow Old And To Be Useless She Changes Into Herself, And Again Makes Other New Things From These Very Same, So That She Requires Neither Substance From Without Nor Wants A Place Into Which She May Cast That Which Decays. She Is Content Then With Her Own Space, And Her Own Matter, And Her Own Art.

Let Every Action Aim Solely At The Common Good.

The Controlling Intelligence Understands Its Own Nature, And What It Does, And Whereon It Works.

Rememberest The Gods, And That They Wish Not To Be Flattered, But Wish All Reasonable Beings To Be Made Like Themselves; And... Rememberest That What Does The Work Of A Fig-tree Is A Fig-tree, And That What Does The Work Of A Dog Is A Dog, And That What Does The Work Of A Bee Is A Bee, And That What Does The Work Of A Man Is A Man.

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.

Remember That What Pulls The Strings Is The Force Hidden Within; There Lies The Power To Persuade, There The Life, - There, If One Must Speak Out, The Real Man.

Since It Is Possible That Thou Mayest Depart From Life This Very Moment, Regulate Every Act And Thought Accordingly. But To Go Away From Among Men, If There Are Gods, Is Not A Thing To Be Afraid Of, For The Gods Will Not Involve Thee In Evil; But If Indeed They Do Not Exist, Or If They Have No Concern About Human Affairs, What Is It To Me To Live In A Universe Devoid Of Gods Or Devoid Of Providence? But Gods There Are, Undoubtedly, And They Regard Human Affairs; And Have Put It Wholly In Our Power, That We Should Not Fall Into What Is Truly Evil.

He Who Flies From His Master Is A Runaway; But The Law Is Master, And He Who Breaks The Law Is A Runaway. And He Also Who Is Grieved Or Angry Or Afraid, Is Dissatisfied Because Something Has Been Or Is Or Shall Be Of The Things Which Are Appointed By Him Who Rules All Things, And He Is Law, And Assigns To Every Man What Is Fit. He Then Who Fears Or Is Grieved Or Is Angry Is A Runaway.

And Can Anything Else That Is Useful Be Accomplished Without Change? Do You Not See Then That For Yourself Also To Change Is Just The Same, And Equally Necessary For The Universal Nature?

Positive Attitude

When You Find An Unwillingness To Rise Early In The Morning, Make This Short Speech To Yourself: I Am Getting Up Now To Do The Business Of A Man; And Am I Out Of Humour For Going About That I Was Made For, And For The Sake Of Which I Was Sent Into The World? Was I Then Designed For Nothing But To Doze And Keep Warm Beneath The Counterpane? Well! But This Is A Comfortable Way Of Living.

God Sees The Minds (ruling Principles) Of All Men Bared Of The Material Vesture And Rind And Impurities. For With His Intellectual Part Alone He Touches The Intelligence Only Which Has Flowed And Been Derived From Himself Into These Bodies. And If Thou Also Usest Thyself To Do This, Thou Wilt Rid Thyself Of Thy Much Trouble. For He Who Regards Not The Poor Flesh Which Envelops Him, Surely Will Not Trouble Himself By Looking After Raiment And Dwelling And Fame And Such Like Externals And Show.

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

Thou Art A Little Soul Bearing About A Corpse.

What Use Do I Put My Soul To? It Is A Serviceable Question This, And Should Frequently Be Put To Oneself. How Does My Ruling Part Stand Affected? And Whose Soul Have I Now? That Of A Child, Or A Young Man, Or A Feeble Woman, Or Of A Tyrant, Of Cattle Or Wild Beasts.

Confine Yourself To The Present.

Receive Wealth Or Prosperity Without Arrogance; And Be Ready To Let It Go.

Just As Nature Takes Every Obstacle, Every Impediment, And Works Around It--turns It To Its Purposes, Incorporates It Into Itself, So, Too, A Rational Being Can Turn Each Setback Into Raw Material And Use It To Achieve Its Goal.

Time Is Like A River Made Up Of The Events Which Happen, And A Violent Stream; For As Soon As A Thing Has Been Seen, It Is Carried Away, And Another Comes In Its Place, And This Will Be Carried Away Too.

Consider, For Example, And You Will Find That Almost All The Transactions In The Time Of Vespasian Differed Little From Those Of The Present Day. You There Find Marrying And Giving In Marriage, Educating Children, Sickness, Death, War, Joyous Holidays, Traffic, Agriculture, Flatterers, Insolent Pride, Suspicions, Laying Of Plots, Longing For The Death Of Others, Newsmongers, Lovers, Misers, Men Canvassing Far The Consulship And For The Kingdom; Yet All These Passed Away, And Are Nowhere.

Remember: Matter: How Tiny Your Share Of It. Time: How Brief And Fleeting Your Allotment Of It. Fate: How Small A Role You Play In It.

Live Your Life As If You Are Ready To Say Goodbye To It At Any Moment, As If The Time Left For You Were Some Pleasant Surprise.

Pleasant Surprises

A Noble Man Compares And Estimates Himself By An Idea Which Is Higher Than Himself; And A Mean Man, By One Lower Than Himself. The One Produces Aspiration; The Other Ambition, Which Is The Way In Which A Vulgar Man Aspires.

It Is Not Death That A Man Should Fear, But He Should Fear Never Beginning To Live.

It Is Not Right To Vex Ourselves At Things, For They Care Not About It.

Do Not Indulge In Dreams Of Having What You Have Not, But Reckon Up The Chief Of The Blessings You Do Possess, And Then Thankfully Remember How You Would Crave For Them If They Were Not Yours.

Look Beneath The Surface; Let Not The Several Quality Of A Thing Nor Its Worth Escape Thee.

Every Being Ought To Do That Which Is According To Its Constitution; And All Other Things Have Been Constituted For The Sake Of The Superior, But The Rational For The Sake Of One Another.

Do Not Fear Death, But Welcome It, Since It Too Comes From Nature. For Just As We Are Young And Grow Old, And Flourish And Reach Maturity, Have Teeth And A Beard And Grey Hairs, Conceive, Become Pregnant, And Bring Forth New Life, And All The Other Natural Processes That Follow The Seasons Of Our Existence, So Also Do We Have Death. A Thoughtful Person Will Never Take Death Lightly, Impatiently, Or Scornfully, But Will Wait For It As One Of Life's Natural Processes.

Whatever Anyone Does Or Says, I Must Be Emerald And Keep My Colour.

We Are The Other Of The Other

Do Not Be Wise In Words - Be Wise In Deeds.

A Rational Nature Admits Of Nothing But What Is Serviceable To The Rest Of Mankind.

Every Soul, The Philosopher Says, Is Involuntarily Deprived Of Truth; Consequently In The Same Way It Is Deprived Of Justice And Temperance And Benevolence And Everything Of The Kind. It Is Most Necessary To Keep This In Mind, For Thus Thou Wilt Be More Gentle Towards All.

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.

While You Live, While It Is In Your Power, Be Good.

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

Never Act Without Purpose And Resolve, Or Without The Means To Finish The Job.

Body. Soul. Mind. Sensations: The Body. Desires: The Soul. Reasoning: The Mind.

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

Cinna Wishes To Seem Poor, And Is Poor

Nothing Is Evil Which Is According To Nature.

A Man Must Stand Erect, Not Be Kept Erect By Others.

Think Of The Country Mouse And Of The Town Mouse, And Of The Alarm And Trepidation Of The Town Mouse.

Your Life Is An Expression Of All Your Thoughts.

Doctors Keep Their Scalpels And Other Instruments Handy, For Emergencies. Keep Your Philosophy Ready Too - Ready To Understand Heaven And Earth. In Everything You Do, Even The Smallest Thing, Remember The Chain That Links Them. Nothing Earthly Succeeds By Ignoring Heaven, Nothing Heavenly By Ignoring Earth.

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.

You Are A Little Soul Bearing About A Corpse, As Epictetus Used To Say.

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.

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.

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

Truth And Justice

Waste No More Time Talking About Great Souls And How They Should Be, Become One Yourself!

Outward Objects Cannot Take Hold Of The Soul, Nor Force Their Passage Into Her, Nor Set Any Of Her Wheels Going. No, The Impression Comes From Herself, And It Is Her Own Motions Which Affect Her. As For The Contingencies Of Fortune, They Are Either Great Or Little, According To The Opinion She Has Of Her Own Strength.

Why Should Any Of These Things That Happen Externally Distract Thee? Give Thyself Leisure To Learn Some Good Thing: Cease Roving To And Fro.

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.

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.

We Ought To Do Good To Others As Simply As A Horse Runs, Or A Bee Makes Honey, Or A Vine Bears Grapes Season After Season Without Thinking Of The Grapes It Has Borne.

It Is The Duty Of Men To Love Even Those Who Injure Them.

The Best Sort Of Revenue Is Not To Be Like Him Who Did The Injury.

There Is Nothing Happens To Any Person But What Was In His Power To Go Through With.

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

Let No Act Be Done Without Purpose.

The Nature Of The Universe Is The Nature Of Things That Are. Now, Things That Are Have Kinship With Things That Are From The Beginning. Further, This Nature Is Styled Truth; And It Is The First Cause Of All That Is True.

Be Not Unwilling In What Thou Doest, Neither Selfish Nor Unadvised Nor Obstinate; Let Not Over-refinement Deck Out Thy Thought; Be Not Wordy Nor A Busybody.

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.

In This Flowing Stream, Then, On Which There Is No Abiding, What Is There Of The Things Which Hurry By On Which A Man Would Set A High Price? It Would Be Just As If A Man Should Fall In Love With One Of The Sparrows Which Fly By, But It Has Already Passed Out Of Sight.

Falling In Love

Remember That All Is Opinion. For What Was Said By The Cynic Monimus Is Manifest: And Manifest Too Is The Use Of What Was Said, If A Man Receives What May Be Got Out Of It As Far As It Is True.

Think Of The Universal Substance, Of Which Thou Has A Very Small Portion; And Of Universal Time, Of Which A Short And Indivisible Interval Has Been Assigned To Thee; And Of That Which Is Fixed By Destiny, And How Small A Part Of It Thou Art

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

As The Same Fire Assumes Different Shapes When It Consumes Objects Differing In Shape, So Does The One Self Take The Shape Of Every Creature In Whom He Is Present.

Discard Everything Except These Few Truths: We Can Live Only In The Present Moment, In This Brief Now; All The Rest Of Our Life Is Dead And Buried Or Shrouded In Uncertainty. Short Is The Life We Lead, And Small Our Patch Of Earth.

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

Do Not Be Ashamed Of Help.

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.

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Stephen R. Donaldson

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