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The Gods Gave Me A Father Who Ruled Over Me And Rid Me Of Any Trace Of Arrogance And Showed Me That One Can Live In A Palace Without Bodyguards, Extravagant Attire, Chandeliers, Statues, And Other Luxuries. He Taught Me That It Is Possible To Live Instead Pretty Much In The Manner Of A Private Citizen Without Losing Any Of The Dignity And Authority A Ruler Must Possess To Discharge His Imperial Duties Effectively.

-Marcus Aurelius

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The Gods Gave Me

Marcus Aurelius

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The Gods Gave Me A Father Who Ruled Over Me And Rid Me Of Any Trace Of Arrogance And Showed Me That One Can Live In A Palace Without Bodyguards, Extravagant Attire, Chandeliers, Statues, And Other Luxuries. He Taught Me That It Is Possible To Live Instead Pretty Much In The Manner Of A Private Citizen Without Losing Any Of The Dignity And Authority A Ruler Must Possess To Discharge His Imperial Duties Effectively.

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

What Doesn't Transmit Light Creates Its Own Darkness.

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

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.

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

Time Is Like A River Made Up Of The Events Which Happen, And A Violent Stream; For As Soon As A Thing Has Been Seen, It Is Carried Away, And Another Comes In Its Place, And This Will Be Carried Away Too.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Frightened Of Change? But What Can Exist Without It? What's Closer To Nature's Heart? Can You Take A Hot Bath And Leave The Firewood As It Was? Eat Food Without Transforming It? Can Any Vital Process Take Place Without Something Being Changed? Can't You See? It's Just The Same With You - And Just As Vital To Nature.

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.

They Know Not How Many Things Are Signified By The Words Stealing, Sowing, Buying, Keeping Quiet, Seeing What Ought To Be Done; For This Is Not Effected By The Eyes, But By Another Kind Of Vision.

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.

Failure To Read What Is Happening In Another's Soul Is Not Easily Seen As A Cause Of Unhappiness: But Those Who Fail To Attend The Motions Of Their Own Soul Are Necessarily Unhappy.

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.

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

He Is A True Fugitive Who Flies From Reason.

Reason And Logic

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Keep In Mind How Fast Things Pass By And Are Gone - Those That Are Now, And Those To Come. Existence Flows Past Us Like A River; The "what" Is In Constant Flux, The "why" Has A Thousand Variations. Nothing Is Stable, Not Even What's Right Here. The Infinity Of Past And Future Gapes Before Us - A Chasm Whose Depths We Cannot See.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

If There Is A God

Every Being Ought To Do That Which Is According To Its Constitution; And All Other Things Have Been Constituted For The Sake Of The Superior, But The Rational For The Sake Of One Another.

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?

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.

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.

The Man Who Doesn't Know What The Universe Is Doesn't Know Where He Lives.

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.

I Have Often Wondered How It Is That Every Man Loves Himself More Than All The Rest Of Men, But Yet Sets Less Value On His Own Opinions Of Himself Than On The Opinions Of Others.

Others Opinions

Regain Your Senses, Call Yourself Back, And Once Again Wake Up. Now That You Realize That Only Dreams Were Troubling You, View This 'reality' As You View Your Dreams.

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

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

The Gods Sustain And Guide All Their Works.

And Finally Remember That Nothing Harms Him Who Is Really A Citizen, Which Does Not Harm The State; Nor Yet Does Anything Harm The State Which Does Not Harm Law [order]; And Of These Things Which Are Called Misfortunes Not One Harms Law. What Then Does Not Harm Law Does Not Harm Either State Or Citizen.

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

Vivid Imagination

Remember That The Sole Life Which A Man Can Lose Is That Which He Is Living At The Moment.

Search Men's Governing Principles, And Consider The Wise, What They Shun And What They Cleave To.

The Ruling Power Within, When It Is In Its Natural State, Is So Related To Outer Circumstances That It Easily Changes To Accord With What Can Be Done And What Is Given It To Do.

Let Goodness Go With The Doing.

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

The Substance Of The Universe Is Obedient And Compliant; And The Reason Which Governs It Has In Itself No Cause For Doing Evil, For It Has No Malice, Nor Does It Do Evil To Anything, Nor Is Anything Harmed By It. But All Things Are Made And Perfected According To This Reason.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Keep Moving Forward

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

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

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

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

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.

Wherever A Man Lives, He May Live Well.

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

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.

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

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

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

Do Not Indulge In Dreams Of Having What You Have Not, But Reckon Up The Chief Of The Blessings You Do Possess, And Then Thankfully Remember How You Would Crave For Them If They Were Not Yours.

Without A Purpose, Nothing Should Be Done.

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

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

You Have Power Over Your Mind - Not Outside Events. Realize This, And You Will Find Strength.

Only To The Rational Animal Is It Given To Follow Voluntarily What Happens; But Simply To Follow Is A Necessity Imposed On All.

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

We Are Born For Cooperation, As Are The Feet, The Hands, The Eyelids, And The Upper And Lower Jaws.

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

No One Can Keep You From Living As Your Nature Requires. Nothings Can Happen To You That Is Not Required By Nature.

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

Everywhere And At All Times It Is In Thy Power Piously To Acquiesce In Thy Present Condition, And To Behave Justly To Those Who Are About Thee, And To Exert Thy Skill Upon Thy Present Thoughts, That Nothing Shall Steal Into Them Without Being Well Examined.

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.

Take The Shortest Route. The One That Nature Planned - To Speak And Act In The Healthiest Way. Do That, And Be Free Of Pain And Stress, Free Of All Calculations And Pretension.

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

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.

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

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

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

My Being Consists Of Matter And Form, That Is, Of Soul And Body; Annihilation Will Reach Neither Of Them, For They Were Never Produced Out Of Nothing. The Consequence Is, That Every Part Of Me Will Serve To Make Something In The World; And This Again Will Change Into Another Part Through An Infinite Succession Of Change. This Constant Method Of Alteration Gave Me My Being, And My Father Before Me, And So On To Eternity Backward: For I Think I May Speak Thus, Even Though The World Be Confined Within Certain Determinate Periods.

Suppose That Thou Hast Detached Thyself From The Natural Unity... Yet Here There Is This Beautiful Provision, That It Is In Thy Power Again To Unite Thyself. God Has Allowed This To No Other Part, After It Has Been Separated And Cut Asunder, To Come Together Again. ...he Has Distinguished Man, For He Has Put It In His Power Not To Be Separated At All From The Universal ...he Has Allowed Him To Be Returned And To Be United And To Resume His Place As A Part.

... 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.

There Is A Limit Circumscribed To Your Time – If You Do Not Use It To Clear Away Your Clouds, It Will Be Gone, And You Will Be Gone, And The Opportunity Will Not Return

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.

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

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

Constantly Contemplate The Whole Of Time And The Whole Of Substance, And Consider That All Individual Things As To Substance Are A Grain Of A Fig, And As To Time The Turning Of A Gimlet .

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.

Observe Constantly That All Things Take Place By Change.

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.

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.

The Things... Which Are Proper To The Understanding No Other Man Is Used To Impede, For Neither Fire, Nor Iron, Nor Tyrant, Nor Abuse, Touches It In Any Way. When It Has Been Made A Sphere, It Continues A Sphere.

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.

All Is Ephemeral - Fame And The Famous As Well.

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

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

Procrastination

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.

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

The Best Revenge Is Not To Be Like Your Enemy.

Everything That Happens, Happens As It Should.

What We Cannot Bear Removes Us From Life; What Remains Can Be Borne.

Neither In Thy Actions Be Sluggish Nor In Thy Conversation Without Method, Nor Wandering In Thy Thoughts, Nor Let There Be In Thy Soul Inward Contention Nor External Effusion, Nor In Life Be So Busy As To Have No Leisure.

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

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.

No State Sorrier Than That Of The Man Who Keeps Up A Continual Round, And Pries Into "the Secrets Of The Nether World," As Saith The Poet, And Is Curious In Conjecture Of What Is In His Neighbour's Heart.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Misfortune Nobly Born Is Good Fortune.

The Only Thing That Isn't Worthless: To Live This Life Out Truthfully And Rightly, And Be Patience With Those Who Don't.

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.

Each Day Provides Its Own Gifts.

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.

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.

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

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

Find Joy In Simplicity, Self-respect, And Indifference To What Lies Between Virtue And Vice. Love The Human Race. Follow The Divine.

For Outward Show Is A Wonderful Perverter Of The Reason.

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

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

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?

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

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.

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.

Live Each Day As If It Be Your Last.

Nothing Proceeds From Nothingness, As Also Nothing Passes Away Into Non-existence.

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

Submit To The Fate Of Your Own Free Will.

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

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

Outward Objects Cannot Take Hold Of The Soul, Nor Force Their Passage Into Her, Nor Set Any Of Her Wheels Going. No, The Impression Comes From Herself, And It Is Her Own Motions Which Affect Her. As For The Contingencies Of Fortune, They Are Either Great Or Little, According To The Opinion She Has Of Her Own Strength.

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.

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

Do Not Be Wise In Words - Be Wise In Deeds.

So Much Worse Are The Consequences Of Anger Than Its Causes.

Men Despise One Another And Flatter One Another; And Men Wish To Raise Themselves Above One Another, And Crouch Before One Another.

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.

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

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.

Live Not As Though There Were A Thousand Years Ahead Of You. Fate Is At Your Elbow; Make Yourself Good While Life And Power Are Still Yours.

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

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

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

What We Do Now Echoes In Eternity.

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

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.

We Are Too Much Accustomed To Attribute To A Single Cause That Which Is The Product Of Several, And The Majority Of Our Controversies Come From That.

Imagine You Were Now Dead, Or Had Not Lived Before His Moment. Now View The Rest Of Your Life As A Bonus.

Rest Of Your Life

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

There Are Three Relations [between Thee And Other Things]: The One To The Body Which Surrounds Thee; The Second To The Divine Cause From Which All Things Come To All; And The Third To Those Who Live With Thee.

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

Remember That There Is A God Who Desires Neither Praise Nor Glory From Men Created In His Image, But Rather That They, Guided By The Understanding Given Them, Should In Their Actions Become Like Unto Him.

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

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

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

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

Give Thyself Time To Learn Something New And Good, And Cease To Be Whirled Around.

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?

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.

All Is As Thinking Makes It So

Everything Is But What We Think It.

Look Within, For Within Is The Wellspring Of Virtue, Which Will Not Cease Flowing, If You Cease Not From Digging.

Self Improvement

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

Remember: Matter: How Tiny Your Share Of It. Time: How Brief And Fleeting Your Allotment Of It. Fate: How Small A Role You Play In It.

Accept Whatever Comes To You Woven In The Pattern Of Your Destiny, For What Could More Aptly Fit Your Needs?

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

When You Have Trouble Getting Out Of Bed In The Morning, Remember That Your Defining Characteristic-what Defines A Human Being-is To Work With Others.

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.

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Robert Staughton Lynd

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