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Give Your Heart To The Trade You Have Learnt, And Draw Refreshment From It. Let The Rest Of Your Days Be Spent As One Who Has Whole-heartedly Committed His All To The Gods And Is Thenceforth No Man's Master Or Slave.

-Marcus Aurelius

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Give Your Heart To

Marcus Aurelius

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Give Your Heart To The Trade You Have Learnt, And Draw Refreshment From It. Let The Rest Of Your Days Be Spent As One Who Has Whole-heartedly Committed His All To The Gods And Is Thenceforth No Man's Master Or Slave.

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All That Is Harmony For You, My Universe, Is In Harmony With Me As Well. Nothing That Comes At The Right Time For You Is Too Early Or Too Late For Me. Everything Is Fruit To Me That Your Seasons Bring, Nature. All Things Come Of You, Have Their Being In You, And Return To You.

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

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

How Can A Man Find A Sensible Way To Live? One Way And One Only- Philosophy. And My Philosophy Means Keeping That Vital Spark Within You Free From Damage And Degradation, Using It To Transcend Pain And Pleasure, Doing Everything With A Purpose, Avoiding Lies And Hypocrisy, Not Relying On Another Person's Actions Or Failings. To Accept Everything That Comes, And Everything That Is Given, As Coming From That Same Spiritual Source.

Put From You The Belief That 'i Have Been Wronged', And With It Will Go The Feeling. Reject Your Sense Of Injury, And The Injury Itself Disappears.

And Yet, After All, What Is Posthumous Fame? Altogether Vanity.

The Secret Of All Victory Lies In The Organization Of The Non-obvious.

Everything Is Ephemeral, Both That Which Remembers And That Which Is Remembered.

There Is No Man So Fortunate That There Shall Not Be By Him When He Is Dying Some Who Are Pleased With What Is Going To Happen.

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.

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.

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.

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

Observe Constantly That All Things Take Place By Change.

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.

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.

Leave The Wrong Done By Another Where The Wrong Arose.

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.

A Man Should Be Upright, Not Kept Upright.

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.

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

Be Mindful At All Times Of The Following: The Nature Of The Whole Universe, The Nature Of The Part That Is Me, The Relation Of The One To The Other, The One So Vast, The Other So Small.

In The Case Of Most Pains Let This Remark Of Epicurus Aid Thee, That The Pain Is Neither Intolerable Nor Everlasting, If Thou Bear In Mind That It Has Its Limits, And If Thou Addest Nothing To It In Imagination.

He Who Lives In Harmony With Himself Lives In Harmony With The Universe.

Live Each Day As If It Be Your Last.

...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.

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.

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

Let It Be Your Constant Method To Look Into The Design Of People's Actions, And See What They Would Be At, As Often As It Is Practicable; And To Make This Custom The More Significant, Practice It First Upon Yourself.

No Longer Talk At All About The Kind Of Man That A Good Man Ought To Be, But Be Such

A Man Is A Little Soul Carrying Around A Courpse.

By A Tranquil Mind I Mean Nothing Else Than A Mind Well Ordered.

All Things Fade And Quickly Turn To Myth.

Natural Ability Without Education Has More Often Raised A Man To Glory And Virtue Than Education Without Natural Ability.

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

The Honest And Good Man Ought To Be Exactly Like A Man Who Smells Strong, So That The Bystander As Soon As He Comes Near Him Must Smell Whether He Choose Or Not.

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.

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.

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

Choose Not To Be Harmed And You Won't Feel Harmed. Don't Feel Harmed And You Haven't Been.

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

Do Not Act As If You Had A Thousand Years To Live.

Procrastination

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

Self Confidence

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

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.

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

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

Is Your Cucumber Bitter? Throw It Away. Are There Briars In Your Path? Turn Aside. That Is Enough. Do Not Go On And Ay, 'why Were Things Of This Sort Ever Brought Into The World?'

...the Sole Thing Of Which Any Man Can Be Deprived Is The Present; Since This Is All He Owns, And Nobody Can Lose What Is Not His.

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

There Is No Misfortune, But To Bear It Nobly Is Good Fortune.

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

Life Is A Stranger's Sojourn, A Night At An Inn.

Give Yourself A Gift: The Present Moment.

... Allow Yourself A Space Of Quiet, Wherein You Can Add To Your Knowledge Of The Good And Learn To Curb Your Restlessness. Guard Also Against Another Kind Of Error: The Folly Of Those Who Weary Their Days In Much Business, But Lack Any Aim On Which Their Whole Effort, Nay, Their Whole Thought, Is Focused.

Do What Nature Now Requires. Set Thyself In Motion, If It Is In Thy Power, And Do Not Look About Thee To See If Any One Will Observe It; Nor Yet Expect Plato's Republic: But Be Content If The Smallest Thing Goes On Well, And Consider Such An Event To Be No Small Matter.

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.

Our Inward Power, When It Obeys Nature, Reacts To Events By Accommodating Itself To What It Faces - To What Is Possible. It Needs No Specific Material. It Pursues Its Own Aims As Circumstances Allow; It Turns Obstacles Into Fuel. As A Fire Overwhelms What Would Have Quenched A Lamp. What's Thrown On Top Of The Conflagration Is Absorbed, Consumed By It - And Makes It Burn Still Higher.

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

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.

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.

The World Is A Living Being - One Nature, One Soul. Keep That In Mind.

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

Do Not Think That What Is Hard For You To Master Is Humanly Impossible; But If A Thing Is Humanly Possible, Consider It To Be Within Your Reach.

When Thou Art Above Measure Angry, Bethink Thee How Momentary Is Man's Life.

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.

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

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

...the Infallible Man Does Not Exist.

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.

Vex Not Thy Spirit At The Course Of Things, They Heed Not Thy Vexations

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

Since You Are An Integral Part Of A Social System, Let Every Act Of Yours Contribute To The Harmonization Of Social Life. Any Action That Is Not Related Directly Or Remotely To This Social Aim Disturbs Your Life, And Destroys Your Unity.

The Rottenness Of The Matter Which Is The Foundation Of Everything!

The Noblest Kind Of Retribution Is Not To Become Like Your Enemy.

Words Of Wisdom

Nowhere Can Man Find A Quieter Or More Untroubled Retreat Than In His Own Soul.

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

Where A Man Can Live, He Can Also Live Well.

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.

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.

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.

It's Silly To Try To Escape Other People's Faults. They Are Inescapable. Just Try To Escape Your Own.

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.

No Matter What Anyone Says Or Does, My Task Is To Be Emerald, My Color Undiminished.

A Little Time, And Thou Shalt Close Thy Eyes; And Him Who Has Attended Thee To Thy Grave, Another Soon Will Lament.

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.

Not Even The Vicissitudes Of Fortune Are Contrary To Nature Or To The Providential Ordering Of The Universe. It All Flows From The Gods, Who Determine What Is Needed For The Welfare Of The Whole Universe, Of Which You Are A Part.

Truth And Ceremony Are Two Things.

The Soul Becomes Dyed With The Color Of Its Thoughts.

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

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.

After All, What Does Fame Everlasting Mean? Mere Vanity.

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.

All That Is From The Gods Is Full Of Providence.

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.

The Main Thing We Were Made For Is To Work With Others.

Do Every Act Of Your Life As If It Were Your Last.

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

Where Any Work Can Be Done Conformably To The Reason Which Is Common To Gods And Men, There We Have Nothing To Fear; For Where We Are Able To Get Profit By Means Of The Activity Which Is Successful And Proceeds According To Our Constitution, There No Harm Is To Be Suspected.

Never Forget That The Universe Is A Single Living Organism Possessed Of One Substance And One Soul, Holding All Things Suspended In A Single Consciousness And Creating All Things With A Single Purpose That They Might Work Together Spinning And Weaving And Knotting Whatever Comes To Pass.

The Happiness And Unhappiness Of The Rational, Social Animal Depends Not On What He Feels But On What He Does; Just As His Virtue And Vice Consist Not In Feeling But In Doing.

Though Thou Be Destined To Live Three Thousand Years And As Many Myriads Besides, Yet Remember That No Man Loseth Other Life Than That Which He Liveth, Nor Liveth Other Than That Which He Loseth.

Perfection Of Character Is This: To Live Each Day As If It Were Your Last, Without Frenzy, Without Apathy, Without Pretence.

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

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.

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

All Things Are Linked With One Another, And This Oneness Is Sacred; There Is Nothing That Is Not Interconnected With Everything Else. For Things Are Interdependent, And They Combine To Form This Universal Order. There Is Only One Universe Made Up Of All Things, And One Creator Who Pervades Them; There Is One Substance And One Law, Namely, Common Reason In All Thinking Creatures, And All Truth Is One-if, As We Believe, There Is Only One Path Of Perfection For All Beings Who Share The Same Mind.

Life Is A Warfare And A Stranger's Sojourn, And After Fame Is Oblivion.

It's Normal To Feel Pain In Your Hands And Feet, If You're Using Your Feet As Feet And Your Hands As Hands. And For A Human Being To Feel Stress Is Normal - If He's Living A Normal Life. And If It's Normal, How Can It Be Bad?

Love Only What Befalls You And Is Spun For You By Fate.

The Soul Is Dyed By The Thoughts. Dye It Then, With A Continuous Series Of Such Thoughts As These - That Where A Man Can Live, There - If He Will - He Can Also Live Well.

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?

When The Sovereign Spirit Within Us Is True To Nature, It Stands Poised And Ready To Adjust To Every Change In Circumstances And To Seize Each New Opportunity. It Doesn't Approach An Object With Prejudice Or Preconception, But Handles Each Thing Dispassionately Before Embracing It And, If Necessary, Finds Advantage In What Opposes It. It Is Like Fire In This Regard. Whereas A Feeble Flame Might Suffocate Under A Pile Of Dry Sticks, A Robust Fire Consumes Everything It Touches. The More Objects Of Any Kind Heaped On It, The Higher It Rises, The Hotter It Burns.

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.

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

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.

Each Thing Is Of Like Form From Everlasting And Comes Round Again In Its Cycle...

A Person's Life Is What Their Thoughts Make It.

The Universe Is A Single Life Comprising One Substance And One Soul.

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

Because A Thing Is Difficult For You, Do Not Therefore Suppose It To Be Beyond Mortal Power. On The Contrary, If Anything Is Possible And Proper For Man To Do, Assume That It Must Fall Within Your Own Capacity.

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.

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

An Angry Look On The Face Is Wholly Against Nature. If It Be Assumed Frequently, Beauty Begins To Perish, And In The End Is Quenched Beyond Rekindling.

Suppose That Men Kill Thee, Cut Thee In Pieces, Curse Thee, What Can These Things Do To Prevent Thy Mind From Remaining Pure, Wise, Sober, Just?

Above, Below, All Around Are The Movements Of The Elements. But The Motion Of Virtue Is In None Of These: It Is Something More Divine, And Advancing By A Way Hardly Observed It Goes Happily On Its Road.

Happiness Is No Other Than Soundness And Perfection Of Mind.

Nothing Can Come Out Of Nothing, Any More Than A Thing Can Go Back To Nothing.

Each Day Provides Its Own Gifts.

Depart Then Satisfied, For He Also Who Releases Thee Is Satisfied.

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

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.

Anything In Any Way Beautiful Derives Its Beauty From Itself And Asks Nothing Beyond Itself. Praise Is No Part Of It, For Nothing Is Made Worse Or Better By Praise.

Let There Be Freedom From Perturbations With Respect To The Things Which Come From The External Cause; And Let There Be Justice In The Things Done By Virtue Of The Internal Cause, That Is, Let There Be Movement And Action Terminating In This, In Social Acts, For This Is According To Thy Nature.

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

Truth And Justice

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.

If The Gods Care Not For Me And For My Children, There Is A Reason For It.

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

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.

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

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.

No One Wearies Of Benefits Received.

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.

For A Man Can Lose Neither The Past Nor The Future; For How Can One Take From Him That Which Is Not His? So Remember These Two Points: First, That Each Thing Is Of Like Form From Everlasting And Comes Round Again In Its Cycle, And That It Signifies Not Whether A Man Shall Look Upon The Same Things For A Hundred Years Or Two Hundred, Or For An Infinity Of Time; Second, That The Longest Lived And The Shortest Lived Man, When They Come To Die, Lose One And The Same Thing.

Think Not Disdainfully Of Death, But Look On It With Favor; For Even Death Is One Of The Things That Nature Wills.

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

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

The Object Of Life Is Not To Be On The Side Of The Majority, But To Escape Finding Oneself In The Ranks Of The Insane.

You Exist But As A Part Inherent In A Greater Whole. Do Not Live As Though You Had A Thousand Years Before You. The Common Due Impends; While You Live, And While You May, Be Good.

Death And Life, Success And Failure, Pain And Pleasure, Wealth And Poverty, All These Happen To Good And Bad Alike, And They Are Neither Noble Nor Shameful - And Hence Neither Good Nor Bad.

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.

Your Life Is An Expression Of All Your Thoughts.

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?

Most Of What We Say And Do Is Unnecessary: Remove The Superfluity, And You Will Have More Time And Less Bother. So In Every Case One Should Prompt Oneself: 'is This, Or Is It Not, Something Necessary?' And The Removal Of The Unnecessary Should Apply Not Only To Actions But To Thoughts Also: Then No Redundant Actions Either Will Follow.

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.

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

The Universe Is Transformation: Life Is Opinion.

Thou Mayest Foresee... The Things Which Will Be. For They Will Certainly Be Of Like Form, And It Is Not Possible That They Should Deviate From The Order Of Things Now: Accordingly To Have Contemplated Human Life For Forty Years Is The Same As To Have Contemplated It For Ten Thousand Years.

As Thou Thyself Art A Component Part Of A Social System, So Let Every Act Of Thine Be A Component Part Of Social Life. Whatever Act Of Thine That Has No Reference, Either Immediately Or Remotely, To A Social End, This Tears Asunder Thy Life, And Does Not Allow It To Be One, And It Is Of The Nature Of A Mutiny, Just As When In A Popular Assembly A Man Acting By Himself Stands Apart From The General Agreement.

Everything Is In A State Of Metamorphosis. Thou Thyself Art In Everlasting Change And In Corruption To Correspond; So Is The Whole Universe.

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?

Objective Judgement, Now, At This Very Moment. Unselfish Action, Now, At This Very Moment. Willing Acceptance - Now, At This Very Moment - Of All External Events. That's All You Need.

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

You Always Own The Option Of Having No Opinion. There Is Never Any Need To Get Worked Up Or To Trouble Your Soul About Things You Can't Control. These Things Are Not Asking To Be Judged By You. Leave Them Alone.

There Is Change In All Things. You Yourself Are Subject To Continual Change And Some Decay, And This Is Common To The Entire Universe.

Observe Always That Everything Is The Result Of A Change, And Get Used To Thinking That There Is Nothing Nature Loves So Well As To Change Existing Forms And To Make New Ones Like Them.

A Spider Is Proud When It Has Caught A Fly; One Man When He Has Caught A Poor Hare, And Another When He Has Taken A Little Fish In A Net, And Another When He Has Taken Wild Boars, And Another When He Has Taken Bears, And Another When He Has Taken Sarmatians. Are Not These Robbers, If You Examine Their Opinions?

Remind Oneself Continually Of One Of Those Who Practiced Virtue In Days Gone By.

To Expect An Impossibility Is Madness.

If Souls Continue To Exist, How Does The Air Contain Them From Eternity?

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.

To Live Happily Is An Inward Power Of The Soul.

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.

The Mind In Itself Wants Nothing, Unless It Creates A Want For Itself; Therefore It Is Both Free From Perturbation And Unimpeded, If It Does Not Perturb And Impede Itself.

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

...small Too Even The Longest Fame Thereafter, Which Is Itself Subject To A Succession Of Little Men Who Quickly Die, And Have No Knowledge Of Themselves, Let Alone Of Those Long Dead.

Find Time Still To Be Learning Somewhat Good, And Give Up Being Desultory.

It Is A Ridiculous Thing For A Man Not To Fly From His Own Badness, Which Is Indeed Possible, But To Fly From Other Men's Badness, Which Is Impossible.

If Souls Survive Death For All Eternity, How Can The Heavens Hold Them All? Or For That Matter, How Can The Earth Hold All The Bodies That Have Been Buried In It? The Answers Are The Same. Just As On Earth, With The Passage Of Time, Decaying And Transmogrified Corpses Make Way For The Newly Dead, So Souls Released Into The Heavens, After A Season Of Flight, Begin To Break Up, Burn, And Be Absorbed Back Into The Womb Of Reason, Leaving Room For Souls Just Beginning To Fly. This Is The Answer For Those Who Believe That Souls Survive Death.

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.

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.

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.

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

So You Know How Things Stand. Now Forget What They Think Of You. Be Satisfied If You Can Live The Rest Of Your Life, However Short, As Your Nature Demands. Focus On That, And Don't Let Anything Distract You. You've Wandered All Over And Finally Realized That You Never Found What You Were After: How To Live. Not In Syllogisms, Not In Money, Or Fame, Or Self-indulgence. Nowhere.

Do Not Suffer A Sudden Impression To Overbear Your Judgment.

Nature Which Governs The Whole Will Soon Change All Things Which You See, And Out Of Their Substance Will Make Other Things And Again Other Things... In Order That The World May Be Ever New.

Most Of What We Say And Do Is Not Essential. If You Can Eliminate It, You'll Have More Time, And More Tranquillity. Ask Yourself At Every Moment, 'is This Necessary?'

Men Seek Retreats For Themselves, Houses In The Country, Sea-shores, And Mountains; And Thou Too Art Wont To Desire Such Things Very Much. But This Is Altogether A Mark Of The Most Common Sort Of Men, For It Is In Thy Power Whenever Thou Shalt Choose To Retire Into Thyself. For Nowhere Either With More Quiet Or More Freedom From Trouble Does A Man Retire Than Into His Own Soul.

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

He Who Fears Death Either Fears The Loss Of Sensation Or A Different Kind Of Sensation. But If Thou Shalt Have No Sensation, Neither Wilt Thou Feel Any Harm; And If Thou Shalt Acquire Another Kind Of Sensation, Thou Wilt Be A Different Kind Of Living Being And Thou Wilt Not Cease To Live.

In The Case Of All Things Which Have A Certain Constitution, Whatever Harm May Happen To Any Of Them, That Which Is Affected Becomes Consequently Worse; But In Like Case, A Man Becomes Both Better... And More Worthy Of Praise, By Making The Right Use Of These Accidents.

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

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.

Why Should A Man Have Any Apprehension About The Change And Dissolution Of All The Elements? For It Is According To Nature, And Nothing Is Evil Which Is According To Nature.

Treat With Utmost Respect Your Power Of Forming Opinions, For This Power Alone Guards You Against Making Assumptions That Are Contrary To Nature And Judgments That Overthrow The Rule Of Reason.

A Good Disposition Is Invincible, If It Be Genuine.

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Maurice Blanchot

W. Averell Harriman

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

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