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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.

-Marcus Aurelius

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Men Seek Retreats For

Marcus Aurelius

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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.

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Be Not As One That Hath Ten Thousand Years To Live; Death Is Nigh At Hand: While Thou Livest, While Thou Hast Time, Be Good.

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.

We Are Born For Synergy, Just Like The Feet, Just Like The Hands, Just Like The Eyes, Just Like The Rows Of Upper And Lower Teeth. Working Against Each Other Is Unnatural, And Being Annoyed And Turning One's Back Is Counterproductive.

No One Can Lose Either The Past Or The Future - How Could Anyone Be Deprived Of What He Does Not Possess? ... It Is Only The Present Moment Of Which Either Stands To Be Deprived: And If This Is All He Has, He Cannot Lose What He Does Not Have.

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

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.

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.

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

A Wrongdoer Is Often A Man Who Has Left Something Undone, Not Always One Who Has Done Something.

To Live Each Day As Though One's Last, Never Flustered, Never Apathetic, Never Attitudinizing - Here Is The Perfection Of Character.

The One Thing Worth Living For Is To Keep One's Soul Pure.

Everything Is Born From Change. ...there Is Nothing Nature Loves More That To Alter What Exists And Make New Things Like It. All That Exists Is The Seed Of What Will Emerge From It. You Think The Only Seeds Are The One That Make Plants And Children? Go Deeper.

I Can At Once Become Happy Anywhere, For He Is Happy Who Has Found Himself A Happy Lot. In A Word, Happiness Lies All In The Functions Of Reason, In Warrantable Desires And Virtuous Practice.

In The Morning, When You Are Sluggish About Getting Up, Let This Thought Be Present: 'i Am Rising To A Man's Work.'

Even The Stoics Agree That Certainty Is Very Hard To Come At; That Our Assent Is Worth Little, For Where Is Infallibility To Be Found?

...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.

Poverty Is The Mother Of Crime.

How Many Together With Whom I Came Into The World Are Already Gone Out Of It.

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.'

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

How Much Time He Saves Who Does Not Look To See What His Neighbor Says Or Does Or Thinks.

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

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.

The Wrongdoer Is Often The Person Who Left Something Undone, Rather Than The Person Who Has Done Something

Short-lived Are Both The Praiser And The Praised, And Rememberer And The Remembered: And All This In A Nook Of This Part Of The World; And Not Even Here Do All Agree, No, Not Any One With Himself: And The Whole Earth Too Is A Point.

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.

How Very Near Us Stand The Two Vast Gulfs Of Time, The Past And The Future, In Which All Things Disappear.

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?'

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

My True Self Is Free. I Cannot Be Contained.

Within Ten Days Thou Wilt Seem A God To Those To Whom Thou Art Now A Beast And An Ape, If Thou Wilt Return To Thy Principles And The Worship Of Reason.

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.

Whoever Values Peace Of Mind And The Health Of The Soul Will Live The Best Of All Possible Lives.

The Opinion Of 10,000 Men Is Of No Value If None Of Them Know Anything About The Subject.

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.

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 .

Adapt Yourself To The Life You Have Been Given; And Truly Love The People With Whom Destiny Has Surrounded You.

... 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

All Things Are The Same, Familiar In Enterprise, Momentary In Endurance, Coarse In Substance. All Things Now Are As They Were In The Day Of Those Whom We Have Buried.

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.

All Things From Eternity Are Of Like Forms And Come Round In Circle.

The Universe Is In Change, Life Is An Opinion.

When You Arise In The Morning, Think Of What A Precious Privilege It Is To Be Alive - To Breathe, To Think, To Enjoy, To Love ... Then Make That Day Count!

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

A Person's Worth Is Measured By The Worth Of What He Values.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Men Seek Out Retreats For Themselves In The Country, By The Seaside, On The Moutains . . . But All This Is Unphilosophical To The Last Degree . . . When Thou Canst At A Moment's Notice Retire Into Thyself.

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

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.

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

Put It Out Of The Power Of Truth To Give You An Ill Character. If Anybody Reports You Not To Be An Honest Man Let Your Practice Give Him The Lie.

Constantly Regard The Universe As One Living Being, Having One Substance And One Soul; And Observe How All Things Have Reference To One Perception, The Perception Of This One Living Being; And How All Things Act With One Movement; And How All Things Are The Cooperating Causes Of All Things Which Exist; Observe Too The Continuous Spinning Of The Thread And The Contexture Of The Web.

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

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

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

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 A Man Can Live, He Can Also Live Well.

Loss Is Nothing Else But Change, And Change Is Nature's Delight.

In One Way An Arrow Moves, In Another Way The Mind. The Mind Indeed, Both When It Exercises Caution And When It Is Employed About Inquiry, Moves Straight Onward Not The Less, And To Its Object.

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

Do Not Disturb Yourself By Picturing Your Life As A Whole; Do Not Assemble In Your Mind The Many And Varied Troubles Which Have Come To You In The Past And Will Come Again In The Future, But Ask Yourself With Regard To Every Present Difficulty: 'what Is There In This That Is Unbearable And Beyond Endurance?'

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

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.

Your Life Is An Expression Of All Your Thoughts.

Give Yourself A Gift: The Present Moment.

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.

It Is Not The Actions Of Others Which Trouble Us (for Those Actions Are Controlled By Their Governing Part), But Rather It Is Our Own Judgments. Therefore Remove Those Judgments And Resolve To Let Go Of Your Anger, And It Will Already Be Gone. How Do You Let Go? By Realizing That Such Actions Are Not Shameful To You.

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.

He Who Has Seen Present Things Has Seen All, Both Everything Which Has Taken Place From All Eternity And Everything Which Will Be For Time Without End; For All Things Are Of One Kin And Of One Form.

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

Man Must Be Arched And Buttressed From Within, Else The Temple Wavers To The Dust.

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

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.

How Powerful Is Man! He Is Able To Do All That God Wishes Him To Do. He Is Able To Accept All That God Sends Upon Him.

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

What We Do Now Echoes In Eternity.

To Them That Ask: Where Hast Thou Seen The Gods, Or How Knowest Thou Certainly That There Be Gods, That Thou Art So Devout In Their Worship? I Answer: Neither Have I Seen My Own Soul, And Yet I Respect And Honor It.

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

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.

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

In The End, What Would You Gain From Everlasting Remembrance? Absolutely Nothing. So What Is Left Worth Living For? This Alone: Justice In Thought, Goodness In Action, Speech That Cannot Deceive, And A Disposition Glad Of Whatever Comes, Welcoming It As Necessary, As Familiar, As Flowing From The Same Source And Fountain As Yourself.

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

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

It Will Suffice Thee To Remember As Concerning Pain ... That The Mind May, By Stopping All Manner Of Commerce And Sympathy With The Body, Still Retain Its Own Tranquility.

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

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

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

Don't Let Your Imagination To Be Crushed By Life As A Whole. Don't Try To Pictures Everything Bad That Could Possibly Happen. Stick With The Situation At Hand. ...then Remind Yourself That Past And Present Have No Power Over You. Only The Present.

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?

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.

The Whole Contains Nothing That Is Not For Its Advantage. By Remembering That I Am Part Of Such A Whole, I Shall Be Content With Everything That Happens.

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

Reading And Writing

There Is But One Thing Of Real Value - To Cultivate Truth And Justice, And To Live Without Anger In The Midst Of Lying And Unjust Men.

Nature In No Case Cometh Short Of Art, For The Arts Are Copiers Of Natural Forms.

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

Nothing Befalls A Man Except What Is In His Nature To Endure.

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

Procrastination

Nature Insists On Whatever Benefits The Whole.

When You Have Been Compelled By Circumstances To Be Disturbed In Any Manner, Quickly Return To Yourself, And Do Not Continue Out Of Tune Longer Than The Compulsion Lasts. You Will Have Increasing Control Over Your Own Harmony By Continually Returning To It.

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.

At Day's First Light Have In Readiness, Against Disinclination To Leave Your Bed, The Thought That "i Am Rising For The Work Of Man."

In The Same Degree In Which A Man's Mind Is Nearer To Freedom From All Passion, In The Same Degree Also Is It Nearer To Strength.

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.

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

People Generally Despise Where They Flatter, And Cringe To Those They Would Gladly Overtop; So That Truth And Ceremony Are Two Things.

This Thou Must Always Bear In Mind, What Is The Nature Of The Whole, And What Is My Nature, And How This Is Related To That, And What Kind Of A Part It Is Of What Kind Of A Whole; And That There Is No One Who Hinders Thee From Always Doing And Saying The Things Which Are According To The Nature Of Which Thou Art A Part.

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

Receive Without Conceit, Release Without Struggle.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Anger Cannot Be Dishonest.

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

You Have To Assemble Your Life Yourself - Action By Action.

Don't Be Ashamed To Need Help. Like A Soldier Storming A Wall, You Have A Mission To Accomplish. And If You've Been Wounded And You Need A Comrade To Pull You Up? So What?

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

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.

Do Not Suffer A Sudden Impression To Overbear Your Judgment.

Enter Others' Minds And Let Them Enter Yours.

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.

Just Consider, My Friend, Whether A Pure Spirit And Virtue Are Anything Other Than Saving Your Life And Being Saved. Perhaps We Need To Discard The Idea Of Longevity And Cease Loving This Life, Instead Committing These Things To God And, Believing That No One Ever Escapes Destiny, To Consider, With That In Mind, How We May Live The Best Possible Life In The Time That Remains.

A Man's Life Is What His Thoughts Make Of It.

Positive Thinking

Stop Whatever You're Doing For A Moment And Ask Yourself: Am I Afraid Of Death Because I Won't Be Able To Do This Anymore?

A Great Estate Is A Great Disadvantage To Those Who Do Not Know How To Use It, For Nothing Is More Common Than To See Wealthy Persons Live Scandalously And Miserably; Riches Do Them No Service In Order To Virtue And Happiness; Therefore 'tis Precept And Principle, Not An Estate, That Makes A Man Good For Something.

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.

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

Your Time Has A Limit Set To It. Use It, Then, To Advance Your Enlightenment; Or It Will Be Gone, And Never In Your Power Again.

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

He Is A True Fugitive Who Flies From Reason.

Reason And Logic

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

A Good Man Does Not Spy Around For The Black Spots In Others, But Presses Unswervingly On Towards His Mark.

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

All That Is From The Gods Is Full Of Providence.

It Is In Your Power To Withdraw Yourself Whenever You Desire. Perfect Tranquility Within Consists In The Good Ordering Of The Mind, The Realm Of Your Own.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Always Follow These Two Rules: First, Act Only On What Your Reasoning Mind Proposes For The Good Of Humanity, And Second, Change Your Opinion If Someone Shows You It's Wrong. This Change Of Mind Must Proceed Only From The Conviction That It's Both Correct And For The Common Good, But Not Because It Will Give You Pleasure And Make You Popular.

Be Tolerant With Others And Strict With Yourself.

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

You Should Banish Any Thoughts Of How You May Appear To Others.

Everything Is But What We Think It.

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

Aptitude Found In The Understanding And Is Often Inherited. Genius Coming From Reason And Imagination, Rarely.

Vivid Imagination

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

Practice Really Hearing What People Say. Do Your Best To Get Inside Their Mind.

Take Full Account Of What Excellencies You Possess, And In Gratitude Remember How You Would Hanker After Them, If You Had Them Not.

Every Man's Life Lies Within The Present; For The Past Is Spent And Done With, And The Future Is Uncertain.

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

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.

Death, Like Birth, Is A Secret Of Nature.

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

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.

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?

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

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 Cucumber Is Bitter? Then Throw It Out. There Are Brambles In The Path? Then Go Around. That's All You Need To Know.

Does A Man Shrink From Change? Why, What Can Come Into Being Save By Change?

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.

The Art Of Living Is More Like Wrestling Than Dancing, In So Far As It Stands Ready Against The Accidental And The Unforeseen, And Is Not Apt To Fall.

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

Remember That All Is Opinion.

Neither Worse Then Nor Better Is A Thing Made By Being Praised.

If Thou Canst See Sharp, Look And Judge Wisely, Says The Philosopher.

The Most Complete Revenge Is Not To Imitate The Aggressor.

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

Truth And Justice

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.

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

Thou Art A Little Soul Bearing About A Corpse.

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.

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.

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.

I Consist Of A Little Body And A Soul.

Always Take The Short Cut; And That Is The Rational One. Therefore Say And Do Everything According To Soundest Reason.

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