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The Offender Needs Pity, Not Wrath; Those Who Must Needs Be Corrected, Should Be Treated With Tact And Gentleness; And One Must Be Always Ready To Learn Better. 'the Best Kind Of Revenge Is, Not To Become Like Unto Them.'

-Marcus Aurelius

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The Offender Needs Pity,

Marcus Aurelius

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The Offender Needs Pity, Not Wrath; Those Who Must Needs Be Corrected, Should Be Treated With Tact And Gentleness; And One Must Be Always Ready To Learn Better. 'the Best Kind Of Revenge Is, Not To Become Like Unto Them.'

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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.

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

When Thou Art Above Measure Angry, Bethink Thee How Momentary Is Man's Life.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

The Nature Of The All Moved To Make The Universe.

When Men Are Inhuman, Take Care Not To Feel Towards Them As They Do Towards Other Humans.

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

If You Do Everything As If It Were The Last Thing You Were Doing In Your Life, And Stop Being Aimless, Stop Letting Your Emotions Override What Your Mind Tells You, Stop Being Hypocritical, Self-centered, Irritable.

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

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.

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

Love The People With Whom Fate Brings You Together

Everything That Exists Is In A Manner The Seed Of That Which Will Be.

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.

Dig Within. There Lies The Wellspring Of Good.

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.

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

All Is Ephemeral - Fame And The Famous As Well.

The Offender Needs Pity, Not Wrath; Those Who Must Needs Be Corrected, Should Be Treated With Tact And Gentleness; And One Must Be Always Ready To Learn Better. 'the Best Kind Of Revenge Is, Not To Become Like Unto Them.'

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.

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.

What We Do In Life Ripples In Eternity.

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

Be Tolerant With Others And Strict With Yourself.

But This Is Altogether A Mark Of The Most Common Sort Of Men, For It Is In Your Power Whenever You Choose To Retire Into Yourself.

Self Determination

As Thou Thyself Art A Component Part Of A Social System, So Let Every Act Of Thine Be A Component Part Of Social Life. Whatever Act Of Thine That Has No Reference, Either Immediately Or Remotely, To A Social End, This Tears Asunder Thy Life, And Does Not Allow It To Be One, And It Is Of The Nature Of A Mutiny, Just As When In A Popular Assembly A Man Acting By Himself Stands Apart From The General Agreement.

Men Exist For The Sake Of One Another.

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.

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

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.

Do Not Be Ashamed Of Help.

Men Seek Retreats For Themselves, Houses In The Country, Sea-shores, And Mountains; And Thou Too Art Wont To Desire Such Things Very Much. But This Is Altogether A Mark Of The Most Common Sort Of Men, For It Is In Thy Power Whenever Thou Shalt Choose To Retire Into Thyself. For Nowhere Either With More Quiet Or More Freedom From Trouble Does A Man Retire Than Into His Own Soul.

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

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.

Let No Act Be Done Without Purpose.

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.

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.

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

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

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

The Best Way Of Avenging Thyself Is Not To Become Like The Wrong-doer.

Look Well Into Thyself; There Is A Source Of Strength Which Will Always Spring Up If Thou Wilt Always Look.

Get Rid Of The Judgement ... Get Rid Of The 'i Am Hurt,' You Are Rid Of The Hurt Itself.

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

Cinna Wishes To Seem Poor, And Is Poor

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

Observe Always That Everything Is The Result Of A Change, And Get Used To Thinking That There Is Nothing Nature Loves So Well As To Change Existing Forms And To Make New Ones Like Them.

God Sees The Minds (ruling Principles) Of All Men Bared Of The Material Vesture And Rind And Impurities. For With His Intellectual Part Alone He Touches The Intelligence Only Which Has Flowed And Been Derived From Himself Into These Bodies. And If Thou Also Usest Thyself To Do This, Thou Wilt Rid Thyself Of Thy Much Trouble. For He Who Regards Not The Poor Flesh Which Envelops Him, Surely Will Not Trouble Himself By Looking After Raiment And Dwelling And Fame And Such Like Externals And Show.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Each Thing Is Of Like Form From Everlasting And Comes Round Again In Its Cycle...

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.

The Universe Is Transformation: Life Is Opinion.

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.

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

Truth And Justice

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.

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

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

A Man Makes No Noise Over A Good Deed, But Passes On To Another As A Vine To Bear Grapes Again In Season.

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

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

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

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 Man Is Happy Who Does Not Think Himself So.

The Best Revenge Is To Be Unlike Him Who Performed The Injury.

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

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."

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

Is Your Cucumber Bitter? Throw It Away. Are There Briars In Your Path? Turn Aside. That Is Enough. Do Not Go On And Ay, 'why Were Things Of This Sort Ever Brought Into The World?'

You Must Become An Old Man In Good Time If You Wish To Be An Old Man Long.

In The Case Of All Things Which Have A Certain Constitution, Whatever Harm May Happen To Any Of Them, That Which Is Affected Becomes Consequently Worse; But In Like Case, A Man Becomes Both Better... And More Worthy Of Praise, By Making The Right Use Of These Accidents.

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.

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.

Nothing Happens To Any Man That He Is Not Formed By Nature To Bear.

Be Content With What You Are, And Wish Not Change; Nor Dread Your Last Day, Nor Long For It.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

I Search After Truth, By Which Man Never Yet Was Harmed.

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.

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

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

Forward, As Occasion Offers. Never Look Round To See Whether Any Shall Note It.... Be Satisfied With Success In Even The Smallest Matter, And Think That Even Such A Result Is No Trifle.

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

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

The Object Of Life Is Not To Be On The Side Of The Majority, But To Escape Finding Oneself In The Ranks Of The Insane.

What Use Do I Put My Soul To? It Is A Serviceable Question This, And Should Frequently Be Put To Oneself. How Does My Ruling Part Stand Affected? And Whose Soul Have I Now? That Of A Child, Or A Young Man, Or A Feeble Woman, Or Of A Tyrant, Of Cattle Or Wild Beasts.

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

A Good Disposition Is Invincible, If It Be Genuine.

Adapt Yourself To The Things Among Which Your Lot Has Been Cast And Love Sincerely The Fellow Creatures With Whom Destiny Has Ordained That You Shall Live.

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

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

Where A Man Can Live, He Can Also Live Well.

Submit To The Fate Of Your Own Free Will.

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

Let Goodness Go With The Doing.

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

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?

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

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.

To No Man Make Yourself A Boon Companion: Your Joy Will Be Less But Less Will Be Your Grief

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

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.

It Is The Duty Of Men To Love Even Those Who Injure Them.

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.

Everything Is Mere Opinion.

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

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

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

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.

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

All Things Fade And Quickly Turn To Myth.

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

Remember That All Is Opinion.

Never Act Without Purpose And Resolve, Or Without The Means To Finish The Job.

Let There Be Freedom From Perturbations With Respect To The Things Which Come From The External Cause; And Let There Be Justice In The Things Done By Virtue Of The Internal Cause, That Is, Let There Be Movement And Action Terminating In This, In Social Acts, For This Is According To Thy Nature.

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. . . .

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.

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

Enough Of This Wretched Life And Murmuring And Apish Tricks. Why Art Thou Disturbed? What Is There New In This? What Unsettles Thee? Is It The Form Of The Thing? Look At It. Or Is It The Matter? Look At It. But Besides These There Is Nothing. Towards The Gods, Then, Now Become At Last More Simple And Better. It Is The Same Whether We Examine These Things For A Hundred Years Or Three.

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.

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

Keep Moving Forward

People Exist For One Another.

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

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

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?

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

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

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?

To Live Happily Is An Inward Power Of The Soul.

Observe The Movements Of The Stars As If You Were Running Their Courses With Them, And Let Your Mind Constantly Dwell On The Changes Of The Elements Into Each Other. Such Imaginings Wash Away The Filth Of Life On The Ground.

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.

Because Your Own Strength Is Unequal To A Task, Do Not Assume It Is Beyond The Powers Of Man.

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

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

Keep Reminding Yourself Of The Way Things Are Connected, Of Great Relatedness. All Things Are Implicated In One Another And In Sympathy With Each Other. This Event Is The Consequence Of Some Other One. Things Push And Pull On Each Other, And Breathe Together, And Are One.

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

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

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.

Thou Mayest Foresee... The Things Which Will Be. For They Will Certainly Be Of Like Form, And It Is Not Possible That They Should Deviate From The Order Of Things Now: Accordingly To Have Contemplated Human Life For Forty Years Is The Same As To Have Contemplated It For Ten Thousand Years.

It Is A Shameful Thing For The Soul To Faint While The Body Still Perseveres.

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

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

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?

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.

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

The Memory Of Everything Is Very Soon Overwhelmed In Time.

Everything That Happens, Happens As It Should.

Live Your Life As If You Are Ready To Say Goodbye To It At Any Moment, As If The Time Left For You Were Some Pleasant Surprise.

Pleasant Surprises

A Man Is A Little Soul Carrying Around A Courpse.

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

Positive Thinking

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.

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.

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

The Soul Becomes Dyed With The Color Of Its Thoughts.

That Which Makes The Man No Worse Than He Was Makes His Life No Worse: It Has No Power To Harm, Without Or Within.

We Are The Other Of The Other

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

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

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?

No Form Of Nature Is Inferior To Art; For The Arts Merely Imitate Natural Forms.

All That Is Harmony For You, My Universe, Is In Harmony With Me As Well. Nothing That Comes At The Right Time For You Is Too Early Or Too Late For Me. Everything Is Fruit To Me That Your Seasons Bring, Nature. All Things Come Of You, Have Their Being In You, And Return To You.

Whatever Any One Does Or Says, I Must Be Good; Just As If The Emerald Were Always Saying This: "whatever Any One Does Or Says, I Must Still Be Emerald, And Keep My Color.

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.

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.

Either An Ordered Universe Or A Medley Heaped Together Mechanically But Still An Order; Or Can Order Subsist In You And Disorder In The Whole! And That, Too, When All Things Are So Distinguished And Yet Intermingled And Sympathetic.

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.

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.

An Angry Look On The Face Is Wholly Against Nature. If It Be Assumed Frequently, Beauty Begins To Perish, And In The End Is Quenched Beyond Rekindling.

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.

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

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

All That Is From The Gods Is Full Of Providence.

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.

He Who Follows Reason In All Things Is Both Tranquil And Active At The Same Time, And Also Cheerful And Collected.

Choose Not To Be Harmed And You Won't Feel Harmed. Don't Feel Harmed And You Haven't Been.

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.

Our Wills Are Ours, To Make Them Thine.

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

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

Do Not Act As If You Were Going To Live Ten Thousand Years. Death Hangs Over You. While You Live, While It Is In Your Power, Be Good.

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.

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.

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

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