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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.

-Marcus Aurelius

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No One Can Lose

Marcus Aurelius

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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.

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When We Consider We Are Bound To Be Serviceable To Mankind, And Bear With Their Faults, We Shall Perceive There Is A Common Tie Of Nature And Relation Between Us.

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.

If Mind Is Common To Us, Then Also The Reason, Whereby We Are Reasoning Beings, Is Common. If This Be So, Then Also The Reason Which Enjoins What Is To Be Done Or Left Undone Is Common. If This Be So, Law Also Is Common; If This Be So, We Are Citizens; If This Be So, We Are Partakers In One Constitution; If This Be So, The Universe Is A Kind Of Commonwealth.

Very Little Is Needed To Make A Happy Life; It Is All Within Yourself, In Your Way Of Thinking.

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

Change Your Attitude To The Things That Bother You And You Will Be Aware Of Them.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Remember That All Is Opinion.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

When You Have Done A Good Deed That Another Has Had The Benefit Of, Why Do You Need A Third Reward-as Fools Do-praise For Having Done Well Or Looking For A Favor In Return.

To A Rational Being It Is The Same Thing To Act According To Nature And According To Reason.

The True Joy Of Humankind Is In Doing That Which Is Most Proper To Our Nature; And The First Property Of People Is To Be Kindly Affected Towards Them That Are Of One Kind With Ourselves.

Everything Is Banal In Experience, Fleeting In Duration, Sordid In Content; In All Respects The Same Today As Generations Now Dead And Buried Have Found It To Be.

The Universe Is Transformation: Life Is Opinion.

When Force Of Circumstance Upsets Your Equanimity Lose No Time In Recovering Your Self-control, And Do Not Remain Out Of Tune Longer Than You Can Help. Habitual Recurrence To The Harmony Will Increase Your Mastery Of It.

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

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

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

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

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.'

When You Are Offended At Anyone's Fault, Turn To Yourself And Study Your Own Failings. By Attending To Them, You Will Forget Your Anger And Learn To Live Wisely.

For Outward Show Is A Wonderful Perverter Of The Reason.

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

A Man's True Greatness Lies In The Consciousness Of An Honest Purpose In Life, Founded On A Just Estimate Of Himself And Everything Else, On Frequent Self-examinations, And A Steady Obedience To The Rule Which He Knows To Be Right, Without Troubling Himself About What Others May Think Or Say, Or Whether They Do Or Do Not That Which He Thinks And Says And Does.

The Stream Of Tendency In Which All Things Seek To Fulfill The Law Of Their Being.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Yet Living And Dying, Honour And Dishonour, Pain And Pleasure, Riches And Poverty, And So Forth Are Equally The Lot Of Good Men And Bad. Things Like These Neither Elevate Nor Degrade; And Therefore They Are No More Good Than They Are Evil.

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 We Hear Is An Opinion, Not A Fact. Everything We See Is A Perspective, Not The Truth.

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?

From Alexander The Platonic, Not Frequently Nor Without Necessity To Say To Any One, Or To Write In A Letter, That I Have No Leisure; Nor Continually To Excuse The Neglect Of Duties Required By Our Relation To Those With Whom We Live, By Alleging Urgent Occupations.

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

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

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

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.

The Time Is At Hand When You Will Have Forgotten Everything; And The Time Is At Hand When All Will Have Forgotten You. Always Reflect That Soon You Will Be No One, And Nowhere.

I Am An Old Man And Have Had Many Worries, But Most Have Never Come To Pass.

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

It Is Not Fit That I Should Give Myself Pain, For I Have Never Intentionally Given Pain Even To Another.

Do Not Expect Plato's Ideal Republic; Be Satisfied With Even The Smallest Step Forward, And Consider This No Small Achievement.

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.

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

How Easy It Is To Repel And Release Every Impression Which Is Troublesome And Immediately To Be Tranquil.

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

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.

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

Your Life Is An Expression Of All Your Thoughts.

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.

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

If Man Reflects On The Changes And Transformations Which Follow One Another Like Wave After Wave And Their Rapidity, He Will Despise Everything Which Is Perishable.

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

The Gods Have Provided Me With Clear And Compelling Signs Of What It Means To Live In Conformity To Nature. They Did Their Part. So Far As Their Gifts, Aid, And Inspiration Are Concerned, Nothing Prevented Me From Following The Path Prescribed By Nature. If From Time To Time I Have Strayed From This Path, The Fault Lies With Me And With My Failure To Heed The Gods' Signs, Or Rather, Their Explicit Instructions.

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

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.

Doth Perfect Beauty Stand In Need Of Praise At All? Nay; No More Than Law, No More Than Truth, No More Than Loving Kindness, Nor Than Modesty.

If Thou Workest At That Which Is Before Thee ... Expecting Nothing, Fearing Nothing, But Satisfied With Thy Present Activity According To Nature, And With Heroic Truth In Every Word And Sound Which Thou Utterest, Thou Wilt Live Happy. And There Is No Man Who Is Able To Prevent This.

Look At Everything That Exists, And Observe That It Is Already In Dissolution And In Change, And As It Were Putrefaction Or Dispersion, Or That Everything Is So Constituted By Nature As To Die.

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.

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

To Expect An Impossibility Is Madness.

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.

When Pain Is Unbearable It Destroys Us; When It Does Not It Is Bearable.

Bear In Mind That The Measure Of A Man Is The Worth Of The Things He Cares About. If It Is Good To Say Or Do Something, Then It Is Even Better To Be Criticized For Having Said Or Done It.

Think Nothing Profitable To You Which Compels You To Break A Promise, To Lose Your Self Respect, To Hate Any Person, To Curse, To Act The Hypocrite.

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

Have I Done Something For The General Interest? Well Then I Have Had My Reward. Let This Always Be Present To Thy Mind, And Never Stop Doing Such Good.

Infinity Is A Fathomless Gulf, Into Which All Things Vanish.

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.

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

Vivid Imagination

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.

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

Life Is Short. That's All There Is To Say. Get What You Can From The Present - Thoughtfully, Justly.

What Doesn't Transmit Light Creates Its Own Darkness.

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.

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

Withdraw To The Untroubled Quietude Deep Within The Soul, And Refresh Yourself.

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

That Which Comes After Ever Conforms To That Which Has Gone Before.

Does The Light Of The Lamp Shine Without Losing Its Splendour Until It Is Extinguished; And Shall The Truth Which Is In Thee And Justice And Temperance Be Extinguished Before Thy Death?

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

All Is As Thinking Makes It So

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

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.

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

Leave Other People's Mistakes Where They Lie.

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

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

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

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

All That Happens Is As Usual And Familiar As The Rose In Spring And The Crop In Summer.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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.

We Are The Other Of The Other

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?

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

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

Let Goodness Go With The Doing.

That Which Had Grown From The Earth, To The Earth, But That Which Has Sprung From Heavenly Seed, Back To The Heavenly Realms Returns. This Is Either A Dissolution Of The Mutual Involution Of The Atoms, Or A Similar Dispersion Of The Unsentient Elements.

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

When Thou Art Offended At Any Man's Fault, Forthwith Turn To Thyself And Reflect In What Manner Thou Doest Error Thyself. For By Attending To This Thou Wilt Quickly Forget Thy Anger, If This Consideration Is Also Added, That The Man Is Compelled; For What Else Could He Do? Or, If Thou Art Able, Take Away From Him The Compulsion.

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

The Earth Loveth The Shower," And "the Holy æther Knoweth What Love Is." The Universe, Too, Loves To Create Whatsoever Is Destined To Be Made.

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

Bear In Mind That The Measure Of A Man Is The Worth Of The Things He Cares About.

Without A Purpose, Nothing Should Be Done.

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

Remember How Often You Have Postponed Minding Your Interest, And Let Slip Those Opportunities The Gods Have Given You. It Is Now High Time To Consider What Sort Of World You Are Part Of, And From What Kind Of Governor Of It You Are Descended; That You Have A Set Period Assigned You To Act In, And Unless You Improve It To Brighten And Compose Your Thoughts, It Will Quickly Run Off With You, And Be Lost Beyond Recovery.

The Universal Nature Out Of The Universal Substance, As If It Were Wax, Now Molds A Horse, And When It Has Broken This Up, It Uses The Material For A Tree, Then For A Man, Then For Something Else.

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?

Nothing Is Worth Doing Pointlessly.

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.

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

The Cucumber Is Bitter? Then Throw It Out. There Are Brambles In The Path? Then Go Around Them. That's All You Need To Know. Nothing More. Don't Demand To Know "why Such Things Exist." Anyone Who Understands The World Will Laugh At You, Just As A Carpenter Would If You Seemed Shocked At Finding Sawdust In His Workshop, Or A Shoemaker At Scraps Of Leather Left Over From Work.

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.

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

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.

Do You See What Little Is Required Of A Man To Live A Well-tempered And God-fearing Life? Obey These Precepts, And The Gods Will Ask Nothing More.

He Who Fears Death Either Fears To Lose All Sensation Or Fears New Sensations. In Reality, You Will Either Feel Nothing At All, And Therefore Nothing Evil, Or Else, If You Can Feel Any Sensations, You Will Be A New Creature, And So Will Not Have Ceased To Have Life.

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

Reflect Often Upon The Rapidity With Which All Existing Things, Or Things Coming Into Existence, Sweep Past Us And Are Carried Away.

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

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

Keep Moving Forward

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

"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?

Do Not Be Ashamed Of Help.

Understand However That Every Man Is Worth Just So Much As The Things Are Worth About Which He Busies Himself.

Reverence The Gods, And Help Men. Short Is Life.

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.

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

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

We Are Born For Cooperation

People Exist For One Another.

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.

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.

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

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

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

The Inner Master, When Confronted With An Obstacle, Uses It As Fuel, Like A Fire Which Consumes Things That Are Thrown Into It. A Small Lamp Would Be Snuffed Out, But A Big Fire Will Engulf What Is Thrown At It And Burn Hotter; It Consumes The Obstacle And Uses It To Reach A Higher Level.

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.

I'm Going To Be Meeting With People Today Who Talk Too Much - People Who Are Selfish, Egotistical, Ungrateful. But I Won't Be Surprised Or Disturbed, For I Can't Imagine A World Without Such People.

What We Do In Life Ripples In Eternity.

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

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

Love The Little Trade Which Thou Hast Learned, And Be Content Therewith.

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.

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.

The Universe Is In Change, Life Is An Opinion.

Persuade Me Or Prove To Me That I Am Mistaken In Thought Or Deed, And I Will Gladly Change - For It Is The Truth I Seek, And The Truth Never Harmed Anyone. Harm Comes From Persisting In Error And Clinging To Ignorance.

When You Are Annoyed At Someone's Mistake, Immediately Look At Yourself And Reflect How You Also Fail; For Example, In Thinking That Good Equals Money, Or Pleasure, Or A Bit Of Fame. By Being Mindful Of This You'll Quickly Forget Your Anger, Especially If You Realize That The Person Was Under Stress, And Could Do Little Else. And, If You Can, Find A Way To Alleviate That Stress.

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

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.

Consider In What Condition Both In Body And Soul A Man Should Be When He Is Overtaken By Death; And Consider The Shortness Of Life, The Boundless Abyss Of Time Past And Future, The Feebleness Of All Matter.

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.

Confine Yourself To The Present.

When You Find An Unwillingness To Rise Early In The Morning, Endeavor To Rouse Your Faculties, And Act Up To Your Kind, And Consider That You Have To Do The Business Of A Man; And That Action Is Both Beneficial And The End Of Your Being.

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.

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.

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.

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

... 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Frequently Consider The Connection Of All Things In The Universe. .. We Should Not Say 'i Am An Athenian' Or 'i Am A Roman' But 'i Am A Citizen Of The Universe.

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