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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.

-Marcus Aurelius

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Remember That All Is

Marcus Aurelius

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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.

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

Truth And Justice

If You Are Distressed By Anything External, The Pain Is Not Due To The Thing Itself, But To Your Estimate Of It; And This You Have The Power To Revoke At Any Moment.

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.

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.

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

... 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.

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

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.

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

Embellish The Soul With Simplicity, With Prudence, And Everything Which Is Neither Virtuous Nor Vicious. Love All Men. Walk According To God; For, As A Poet Hath Said, His Laws Govern All.

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

All Things Are Changing; And Thou Thyself Art In Continuous Mutation And In A Manner In Continuous Destruction And The Whole Universe To.

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

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."

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

How Many After Being Celebrated By Fame Have Been Given Up To Oblivion; And How Many Who Have Celebrated The Fame Of Others Have Long Been Dead.

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

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

Take It That You Have Died Today, And Your Life's Story Is Ended; And Henceforward Regard What Future Time May Be Given You As Uncovenanted Surplus, And Live It Out In Harmony With Nature.

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?

Never Esteem Anything As Of Advantage To You That Will Make You Break Your Word Or Lose Your Self-respect.

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

Nothing Is Worth Doing Pointlessly.

It Were Well To Die If There Be Gods, And Sad To Live If There Be None.

If There Is A God

Take Me And Cast Me Where You Will; I Shall Still Be Possessor Of The Divinity Within Me, Serene And Content.

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.

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

The Universe Is Transformation: Life Is Opinion.

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.

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

Ifit Be A Thing External That Causes Thy Grief, Know, That It Is Not That Properly That Doth Cause It, But Thine Own Conceit And Opinion Concerning The Thing: Which Thou Mayest Rid Thyself Of, When Thou Wilt.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Nature Has Given To Each Conscious Being Every Power She Possesses, And One Of These Abilities Is This: Just As Nature Converts And Alters Every Obstacle And Opposition, And Fits Them Into Their Predestined Place, Making Them A Part Of Herself, So Too The Rational Person Is Able To Finesse Every Obstacle Into An Opportunity, And To Use It For Whatever Purpose It May Suit.

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.

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

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

From Apollonius I Learned Freedom Of Will And Undeviating Steadiness Of Purpose; And To Look To Nothing Else, Not Even For A Moment, Except To Reason; And To Be Always The Same, In Sharp Pains, On The Occasion Of The Loss Of A Child, And In Long Illness.

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?

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.

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.

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

Your Manners Will Depend Very Much Upon The Quality Of What You Frequently Think On; For The Soul Is As It Were Tinged With The Colour And Complexion Of Thought.

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

God Overrules All Mutinous Accidents, Brings Them Under His Laws Of Fate, And Makes Them All Serviceable To His Purpose.

Your Days Are Numbered. Use Them To Throw Open The Windows Of Your Soul To The Sun. If You Do Not, The Sun Will Soon Set, And You With It.

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

Am I Doing Anything? I Do It With Reference To The Good Of Mankind. Does Anything Happen To Me? I Receive It And Refer It To The Gods, And The Source Of All Things, From Which All That Happens Is Derived.

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

And Thou Wilt Give Thyself Relief, If Thou Doest Every Act Of Thy Life As If It Were The Last.

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

Be Content To Seem What You Really Are.

Loving Yourself

Self Acceptance

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.

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

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

Give Full Attention And Devotion To Each Act.

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.

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

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

The Happiness Of Those Who Want To Be Popular Depends On Others; The Happiness Of Those Who Seek Pleasure Fluctuates With Moods Outside Their Control; But The Happiness Of The Wise Grows Out Of Their Own Free Acts.

How Ridiculous Not To Flee From One's Own Wickedness, Which Is Possible, Yet Endeavor To Flee From Another's Which Is Not.

Self Improvement

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

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

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

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

Perhaps There Are None More Lazy, Or More Truly Ignorant, Than Your Everlasting Readers.

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

But If We Judge Only Those Things Which Are In Our Power To Be Good Or Bad, There Remains No Reason Either For Finding Fault With God Or Standing In A Hostile Attitude To Man.

Can We Wonder That Men Perish And Are Forgotten, When Their Noblest And Most Enduring Works Decay? Death Comes Even To Monumental Structures, And Oblivion Rests On The Most Illustrious Names.

Confine Yourself To The Present.

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

Happiness Is No Other Than Soundness And Perfection Of Mind.

Enter Others' Minds And Let Them Enter Yours.

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

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?

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

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

Our Life Is What Our Thoughts Make It.

Think Of Yourself As Dead. You Have Lived Your Life. Now, Take What's Left And Live It Properly. What Doesn't Transmit Light Creates Its Own Darkness.

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

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

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

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

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

Positive Thinking

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

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?

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

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

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.

As For Literature, Thefts Cannot Harm It, While The Lapse Of Ages Augments Its Value

Does What's Happened Keep You From Acting With Justice, Generosity, Self-control, Sanity, Prudence, Honesty, Humility, Straightforward Ness, And All Other Qualities That Allow A Person's Nature To Fulfill Itself? So Remember This Principle When Something Threatens To Cause You Pain: The Thing Itself Was No Misfortune At All; To Endure It And Prevail Is Great Good Fortune.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

To Live Happily Is An Inward Power Of The Soul.

Death, Like Birth, Is A Secret Of Nature.

It Is Not The Body, Nor The Personality That Is The True Self. The True Self Is Eternal. Even On The Point Of Death We Can Say To Ourselves, "my True Self Is Free. I Cannot Be Contained."

If You Separate From . . . Everything You Have Done In The Past, Everything That Disturbs You About The Future . . . And Apply Yourself To Living The Life That You Are Living-that Is To Say, The Present-you Can Live All The Time That Remains To You Until Your Death In Calm, Benevolence, And Serenity.

How Barbarous, To Deny Men The Privilege Of Pursuing What They Imagine To Be Their Proper Concerns And Interests! Yet, In A Sense, This Is Just What You Are Doing When You Allow Your Indignation To Rise At Their Wrongdoing; For After All, They Are Only Following Their Own Apparent Concerns And Interests. You Say They Are Mistaken? Why Then, Tell Them So, And Explain It To Them, Instead Of Being Indignant.

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

Which Is Recorded Of Socrates, That He Was Able Both To Abstain From, And To Enjoy, Those Things Which Many Are Too Weak To Abstain From, And Cannot Enjoy Without Excess. But To Be Strong Enough Both To Bear The One And To Be Sober In The Other Is The Mark Of A Man Who Has A Perfect And Invincible Soul.

The Mind Which Is Free From Passions Is A Citadel, For Man Has Nothing More Secure To Which He Can Fly For Refuge And For The Future Be Inexpugnable . He Then Who Has Not Seen This Is An Ignorant Man: But He Who Has Seen It And Does Not Fly To This Refuge Is Unhappy.

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

Power To Change

Everything Is Interwoven, And The Web Is Holy.

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.

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.

Gluttony And Drunkenness Have Two Evils Attendant On Them; They Make The Carcass Smart, As Well As The Pocket.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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

It Is A Sin To Persue Pleasure As A Good And To Avoid Pain As A Evil.

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

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

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?

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

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.

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

The Perfection Of Moral Character Consists In This, In Passing Every Day As The Last, And In Being Neither Violently Excited Nor Torpid Nor Playing The Hypocrite.

A Lucky Chance Is Constant In Nothing But Inconstancy.

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

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

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

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.

Put An End Once And For All To This Discussion Of What A Good Person Should Be, And Be One.

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

The Passing Minute Is Every Man's Equal Possession But What Has Once Gone By Is Not Ours.

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

Reading And Writing

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

My True Self Is Free. I Cannot Be Contained.

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

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

Praise Adds Nothing To Beauty--makes It Neither Better Nor Worse.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

...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.

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

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

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

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

To Expect An Impossibility Is Madness.

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

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

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

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?

Consider How Many Do Not Even Know Your Name, And How Many Will Soon Forget It, And How Those Who Now Praise You Will Presently Blame You.

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

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.

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

Be Cheerful, Also, And Seek Not External Help, Nor The Peace Which Others Give. A Man Must Stand Straight, And Not Be Kept Straight By Others.

Time Is A Sort Of River Of Passing Events, And Strong Is Its Current; No Sooner Is A Thing Brought To Sight Than It Is Swept By And Another Takes Its Place, And This Too Will Be Swept Away.

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.

The Gods Sustain And Guide All Their Works.

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.

Begin - To Begin Is Half The Work, Let Half Still Remain; Again Begin This, And Thou Wilt Have Finished.

He Does Not Write At All Whose Poems No Man Reads

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

Thou Sufferest Justly: For Thou Choosest Rather To Become Good To-morrow Than To Be Good To-day.

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

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?

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.

No One Wearies Of Benefits Received.

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

People Exist For One Another.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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?

Do Not Suffer A Sudden Impression To Overbear Your Judgment.

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