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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.

-Marcus Aurelius

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The Things... Which Are

Marcus Aurelius

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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.

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Everything Is But What We Think It.

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.

While You Live, While It Is In Your Power, Be Good.

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

The Memory Of Everything Is Very Soon Overwhelmed In Time.

Remember That All Things Are Only Opinion And That It Is In Your Power To Think As You Please.

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?

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

To The Wise, Life Is A Problem; To The Fool, A Solution.

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.

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

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

Above, Below, All Around Are The Movements Of The Elements. But The Motion Of Virtue Is In None Of These: It Is Something More Divine, And Advancing By A Way Hardly Observed It Goes Happily On Its Road.

Whatever May Happen To Thee, It Was Prepared For Thee From All Eternity.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Pass Then Through This Little Space Of Time Conformably To Nature, And End Thy Journey In Content, Just As An Olive Falls Off When It Is Ripe, Blessing Nature Who Produced It, And Thanking The Tree On Which It Grew.

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.

The Nature Of The All Moved To Make The Universe.

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.

The Wise Man Sees In The Misfortune Of Others What He Should Avoid.

Men Exist For Each Other. Then Either Improve Them, Or Put Up With Them.

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.

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.

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

He Would Be The Finer Gentleman That Should Leave The World Without Having Tasted Of Lying Or Pretence Of Any Sort, Or Of Wantonness Or Conceit.

A Man Should Be Upright, Not Kept Upright.

Constantly Regard The Universe As One Living Being, Having One Substance And One Soul; And Observe How All Things Have Reference To One Perception, The Perception Of This One Living Being; And How All Things Act With One Movement; And How All Things Are The Cooperating Causes Of All Things Which Exist; Observe Too The Continuous Spinning Of The Thread And The Contexture Of The Web.

As For Life, It Is A Battle And A Sojourning In A Strange Land; But The Fame That Comes After Is Oblivion.

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

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

If Souls Continue To Exist, How Does The Air Contain Them From Eternity?

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.

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

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

What Doesn't Transmit Light Creates Its Own Darkness.

The Happiness And Unhappiness Of The Rational, Social Animal Depends Not On What He Feels But On What He Does; Just As His Virtue And Vice Consist Not In Feeling But In Doing.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

No One Can Lose Either The Past Or The Future - How Could Anyone Be Deprived Of What He Does Not Possess? ... It Is Only The Present Moment Of Which Either Stands To Be Deprived: And If This Is All He Has, He Cannot Lose What He Does Not Have.

From The Philosopher Catulus, Never To Be Dismissive Of A Friend's Accusation, Even If It Seems Unreasonable, But To Make Every Effort To Restore The Relationship To Its Normal Condition.

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.

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

The Intelligence Of The Universe Is Social.

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

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

Remember This - That There Is A Proper Dignity And Proportion To Be Observed In The Performance Of Every Act Of Life.

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

... 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.

Don't Let Your Imagination To Be Crushed By Life As A Whole. Don't Try To Pictures Everything Bad That Could Possibly Happen. Stick With The Situation At Hand. ...then Remind Yourself That Past And Present Have No Power Over You. Only The Present.

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

Truth And Ceremony Are Two Things.

Consider Frequently The Connection Of All Things In The Universe And Their Relation To One Another. For Things Are Somehow Implicated With One Another, And All In A Way Friendly To One Another.

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.

The Mind In Itself Wants Nothing, Unless It Creates A Want For Itself; Therefore It Is Both Free From Perturbation And Unimpeded, If It Does Not Perturb And Impede Itself.

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.

Neither Worse Then Nor Better Is A Thing Made By Being Praised.

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

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

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

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.

Adapt Yourself To The Life You Have Been Given; And Truly Love The People With Whom Destiny Has Surrounded You.

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

Your Life Is An Expression Of All Your Thoughts.

Short Is The Little Which Remains To Thee Of Life. Live As On A Mountain.

He That Dies In Extreme Old Age Will Be Reduced To The Same State With Him That Is Cut Down Untimely.

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.

You Need To Be Prepared For Firm Decisions And Action, Without Losing Gentleness Towards Those Who Obstruct Or Abuse You. It's As Great A Weakness To Be Angry With Them As It Is To Abandon Your Plan Of Action And Give Up Through Fear.

Deem Not Life A Thing Of Consequence. For Look At The Yawning Void Of The Future, And At That Other Limitless Space, The Past.

If The Gods Care Not For Me And For My Children, There Is A Reason For It.

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.

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

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

Let Goodness Go With The Doing.

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.

Enter Others' Minds And Let Them Enter Yours.

That Which Is Really Beautiful Has No Need Of Anything; Not More Than Law, Not More Than Truth, Not More Than Benevolence Or Modesty.

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.

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

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.

What Does Not Benefit The Hive Is No Benefit To The Bee.

Do Not Be Ashamed Of Help.

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

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

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

All Is As Thinking Makes It So

Within Ten Days Thou Wilt Seem A God To Those To Whom Thou Art Now A Beast And An Ape, If Thou Wilt Return To Thy Principles And The Worship Of Reason.

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

Do What You Will. Even If You Tear Yourself Apart, Most People Will Continue Doing The Same Things.

Since It Is Possible That Thou Mayest Depart From Life This Very Moment, Regulate Every Act And Thought Accordingly. But To Go Away From Among Men, If There Are Gods, Is Not A Thing To Be Afraid Of, For The Gods Will Not Involve Thee In Evil; But If Indeed They Do Not Exist, Or If They Have No Concern About Human Affairs, What Is It To Me To Live In A Universe Devoid Of Gods Or Devoid Of Providence? But Gods There Are, Undoubtedly, And They Regard Human Affairs; And Have Put It Wholly In Our Power, That We Should Not Fall Into What Is Truly Evil.

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

Be Content To Seem What You Really Are.

Loving Yourself

Self Acceptance

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

To Expect An Impossibility Is Madness.

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

Leave Other People's Mistakes Where They Lie.

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

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

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.

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

It Will Suffice Thee To Remember As Concerning Pain ... That The Mind May, By Stopping All Manner Of Commerce And Sympathy With The Body, Still Retain Its Own Tranquility.

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?

How Much Time He Saves Who Does Not Look To See What His Neighbor Says Or Does Or Thinks.

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.

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.

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.

A Good Man Does Not Spy Around For The Black Spots In Others, But Presses Unswervingly On Towards His Mark.

We Are Born For Cooperation

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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

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

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

...if A Man Comes To His Fortieth Year, And Has Any Understanding At All, He Has Virtually Seen - Thanks To Their Similarity - All Possible Happenings, Both Past And To Come.

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

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

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.

Socrates Used To Call The Opinions Of The Many By The Name Of Lamiae, Bugbears To Frighten Children.

The Soul Becomes Dyed With The Color Of Its Thoughts.

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

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.

The Blazing Fire Makes Flames And Brightness Out Of Everything Thrown Into It.

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.

How Can A Man Find A Sensible Way To Live? One Way And One Only- Philosophy. And My Philosophy Means Keeping That Vital Spark Within You Free From Damage And Degradation, Using It To Transcend Pain And Pleasure, Doing Everything With A Purpose, Avoiding Lies And Hypocrisy, Not Relying On Another Person's Actions Or Failings. To Accept Everything That Comes, And Everything That Is Given, As Coming From That Same Spiritual Source.

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

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

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.

All Those Things At Which Thou Wishest To Arrive By A Circuitous Road, Thou Canst Have Now, If Thou Dost Not Refuse Them To Thyself.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 .

All Is Ephemeral - Fame And The Famous As Well.

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

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

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

If Any Man Can Convince Me And Bring Home To Me That I Do Not Think Or Act Aright, Gladly Will I Change; For I Search After Truth, By Which Man Never Yet Was Harmed. But He Is Harmed Who Abideth On Still In His Deception And Ignorance.

Let Every Action Aim Solely At The Common Good.

Observe Constantly That All Things Take Place By Change.

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

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.

Because A Thing Is Difficult For You, Do Not Therefore Suppose It To Be Beyond Mortal Power. On The Contrary, If Anything Is Possible And Proper For Man To Do, Assume That It Must Fall Within Your Own Capacity.

To Live Happily Is An Inward Power Of The Soul.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The Whole Universe Is Change And Life Itself Is But What You Deem It

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

Reading And Writing

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.

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.

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.

Happiness Is No Other Than Soundness And Perfection Of Mind.

Most Of What We Say And Do Is Not Essential. If You Can Eliminate It, You'll Have More Time, And More Tranquillity. Ask Yourself At Every Moment, 'is This Necessary?'

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Either All Things Proceed From One Intelligent Source And Come Together As In One Body, And The Part Ought Not To Find Fault With What Is Done For The Benefit Of The Whole; Or There Are Only Atoms, And Nothing Else Than A Mixture And Dispersion. Why, Then, Art Thou Disturbed? Say To This Ruling Faculty, Art Thou Dead, Art Thou Corrupted, Art Thou Playing The Hypocrite, Art Thou Become A Beast, Dost Thou Herd And Feed With The Rest?

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

Self Improvement

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

Receive Without Conceit, Release Without Struggle.

Without A Purpose, Nothing Should Be Done.

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

The World Is A Living Being - One Nature, One Soul. Keep That In Mind.

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.

Not To Waste Time On Nonsense. Not To Be Taken In By Conjurors And Hoodoo Artists With Their Talk About Incantations And Exorcism And All The Rest Of It. Not To Be Obsessed With Quail-fighting Or Other Crazes Like That.

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

Time Is A Kind Of River, An Irresistible Flood Sweeping Up Men And Events And Carrying Them Headlong, One After The Other, To The Great Sea Of Being.

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

Let Thy Chief Fort And Place Of Defense Be A Mind Free From Passions. A Stronger Place And Better Fortified Than This, Hath No Man.

No Matter What Anyone Says Or Does, My Task Is To Be Emerald, My Color Undiminished.

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

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.

My City And State Are Rome. But As A Human Being? The World. So For Me, "good" Can Only Mean What's Good For Both Communities.

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

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

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Earl Blumenauer

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