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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.

-Marcus Aurelius

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Remember That Neither The

Marcus Aurelius

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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.

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Take Away The Complaint, 'i Have Been Harmed,' And The Harm Is Taken Away.

It Never Ceases To Amaze Me: We All Love Ourselves More Than Other People, But Care More About Their Opinions Than Our Own.

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.

It Doesn't Hurt Me Unless I Interpret Its Happening As Harmful To Me. I Can Choose Not To.

Everything Is Only For A Day, Both That Which Remembers And That Which Is Remembered. Observe Constantly That All Things Take Place By Change, And Accustom Thyself To Consider That The Nature Of The Universe Loves Nothing So Much As To Change The Things Which Are And To Make New Things Like Them. For Everything That Exists Is In A Manner The Seed Of That Which Will Be.

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.

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

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

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.

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

The Soul Becomes Dyed With The Color Of Its Thoughts.

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

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.

Continuously Thou Wilt Look At Human Things As Smoke And Nothing At All; Especially If Thou Reflectest At The Same Time, That What Has Once Changed Will Never Exist Again In The Infinite Duration Of Time. But Thou, In What A Brief Space Of Time Is Thy Existence? And Why Art Thou Not Content To Pass Through This Short Time In An Orderly Way?

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?

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

Remember That All Is Opinion.

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

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

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

Let Every Action Aim Solely At The Common Good.

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

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

A Man's Worth Is No Greater Than His Ambitions.

Look Back Over The Past, With Its Changing Empires That Rose And Fell, And You Can Foresee The Future, Too.

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?

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.

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.

If You Do The Task Before You Always Adhering To Strict Reason With Zeal And Energy And Yet With Humanity, Disregarding All Lesser Ends And Keeping The Divinity Within You Pure And Upright, As Though You Were Even Now Faced With Its Recall - If You Hold Steadily To This, Staying For Nothing And Shrinking From Nothing, Only Seeking In Each Passing Action A Conformity With Nature And In Each Word And Utterance A Fearless Truthfulness, Then The Good Life Shall Be Yours. And From This Course No Man Has The Power To Hold You Back.

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.

Keep Constantly In Mind In How Many Things You Yourself Have Witnessed Changes Already. The Universe Is Change, Life Is Understanding.

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

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

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

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

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

Severally On The Occasion Of Everything That Thou Doest, Pause And Ask Thyself, If Death Is A Dreadful Thing Because It Deprives Thee Of This.

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

He That Lives Alone Lives In Danger; Society Avoids Many Dangers.

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

Is Any Man Afraid Of Change? Why What Can Take Place Without Change? What Then Is More Pleasing Or More Suitable To The Universal Nature?

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.

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

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

Words Of Wisdom

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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?

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.

Despise Not Death, But Welcome It, For Nature Wills It Like All Else.

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

Things Themselves Cannot Touch The Soul, Not In The Least Degree, Nor Have They Admission To The Soul Nor Can They Turn Or Move The Soul: It Turns And Moves Itself Alone And Whatever Judgment It May Think Proper To Make, Such It Makes By Remaking For Itself The Things That Present Themselves To It

Nothing Happens To Any Man Which He Is Not Formed By Nature To Bear. The Same Things Happen To Another, And Either Because He Does Not See That They Have Happened Or Because He Would Show A Great Spirit He Is Firm And Remains Unharmed. It Is A Shame Then That Ignorance And Conceit Should Be Stronger Than Wisdom.

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

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

The Best Revenge Is Not To Be Like Your Enemy.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Observe And Contemplate On The Hidden Things Of Life: How A Man's Seed Is But The Beginning, It Takes Others To Bring It To Fruition. Think How Food Undergoes Such Changes To Produce Health And Strength. See The Power Of These Hidden Things Which, Like The Wind Cannot Been Seen, But Its Effects Can Be.

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

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.

Receive Without Conceit, Release Without Struggle.

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

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

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.

All Is As Thinking Makes It So

Both Happiness And Unhappiness Depend On Perception

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

Everything Harmonizes With Me, Which Is Harmonious To Thee, O Universe. Nothing For Me Is Too Early Or Too Late, Which Is In Due Time For Thee.

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

For Any Particular Thing, Ask: What Is It In Itself? What Is Its Nature?

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

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.

Everything Is But What We Think It.

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

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.

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

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

Never Value Anything As Profitable To Thyself Which Shall Compel Thee To Break Thy Promise, To Lose Thy Self-respect, To Hate Any Man, To Suspect, To Curse, To Act The Hypocrite, To Desire Anything Which Needs Walls And Curtains.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Reading And Writing

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.

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 Art Of Living Is More Like Wrestling Than Dancing.

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.

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.

Everything Is Interwoven, And The Web Is Holy.

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."

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

The Greatest Part Of What We Say And Do Is Really Unnecessary. If A Man Takes This To Heart, He Will Have More Leisure And Less Uneasiness.

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

We Are Born For Cooperation

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

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

...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.

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.

Let Thine Occupations Be Few, Saith The Sage, If Thou Wouldst Lead A Tranquil Life.

The Nature Of The All Moved To Make The Universe.

The First Rule Is To Keep An Untroubled Spirit. The Second Is To Look Things In The Face And Know Them For What They Are.

Inspirational Running

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.

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.

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

If It's Time For You To Go, Leave Willingly - As You Would To Accomplish Anything That Can Be Done With Grace And Honor.

Every Moment Think Steadily As A Roman And A Man To Do What Thou Hast In Hand With Perfect And Simple Dignity, And Feeling Of Affection, And Freedom, And Justice; And To Give Thyself Relief From All Other Thoughts. And Thou Wilt Give Thyself Relief, If Thou Doest Every Act Of Thy Life As If It Were The Last, Laying Aside All Carelessness And Passionate Aversion From The Commands Of Reason, And All Hypocrisy, And Self-love, And Discontent With The Portion Which Has Been Given To Thee.

Don't Let Your Imagination Be Crushed By Life As A Whole.

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

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

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

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

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

People Exist For One Another.

Tomorrow Is Nothing, Today Is Too Late; The Good Lived Yesterday.

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

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

Cinna Wishes To Seem Poor, And Is Poor

Death Smiles At Us All, All A Man Can Do Is Smile Back.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Frequently Consider The Connection Of All Things In The Universe.

Words Of Wisdom

The Lot Assigned To Every Man Is Suited To Him, And Suits Him To 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.

Hast Thou Reason? I Have. Why Then Dost Not Thou Use It? For If This Does Its Own Work, What Else Dost Thou Wish?

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.

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.

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.

Waste Not The Remnant Of Thy Life In Those Imaginations Touching Other Folk, Whereby Thou Contributest Not To The Common Weal.

A Lucky Chance Is Constant In Nothing But Inconstancy.

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

You Are Making An Inopportune Rejection Of What Nature Has Given You Today, If All Your Mind Is Set On What Men Will Say Of You Tomorrow.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

When 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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Everything Is Mere Opinion.

When Forced, As It Seems, By Your Environment To Be Utterly Disquieted, Return With All Speed Into Your Self, Staying In Discord No Longer Than You Must. By Constant Recurrence To The Harmony, You Will Gain More Command Over It.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

What Is Not Good For The Swarm Is Not Good For The Bee.

The Constant Recollection Of Death Is The Test Of Human Conduct.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

A Man Should Remove Not Only Unnecessary Acts, But Also Unnecessary Thoughts, For Then Superfluous Activity Will Not Follow.

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

Neither In Writing Nor In Reading Wilt Thou Be Able To Lay Down Rules For Others Before Thou Shalt Have First Learned To Obey Rules Thyself.

To Refrain From Imitation Is The Best Revenge.

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

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.

Give Full Attention And Devotion To Each Act.

Confine Yourself To The Present.

He Who Does Wrong Does Wrong Against Himself. He Who Acts Unjustly Acts Unjustly To Himself, Because He Makes Himself Bad.

You Don't Have To Turn This Into Something. It Doesn't Have To Upset You. Things Can't Shape Our Decisions By Themselves.

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

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

Dwell On The Beauty Of Life. Watch The Stars, And See Yourself Running With Them.

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

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

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

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

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Gregg Easterbrook

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