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When you get angry, you should know that you aren’t guilty of an isolated lapse, you’ve encouraged a trend and thrown fuel on the fire.
Just ask whether they put their self-interest in externals or in moral choice. [27] If it’s in externals, you cannot call them friends, any more than you can call them trustworthy, consistent, courageous or free.
Only madness could get you to acknowledge any faculty of greater authority than the will. Or are you really that deaf and blind? [23] Does this mean that our other faculties should be despised? Of course not. We certainly do not say that there is nothing to be used or gained apart from the will; that is stupid, besides being impious and ungrateful to God. Each thing must be given its due. [24] Even a donkey has some utility, only not as much as an ox.
people have a different currency, just flash it, and whatever is for sale there will be yours in exchange. [12] A corrupt governor has come to power in our province. What currency does he recognize? Silver. Show him silver, then, and you can cart off what you like. Here is an adulterer. His currency takes the form of pretty girls. ‘Take the money, and sell me the merchandise.’ In this way they are bought and sold.
when you engage in the same things as the masses, you lower yourself to their level.
You must realize that death and illness are bound to overtake us whatever it is we’re doing. They overtake the farmer at the plough, the sailor at the helm; [6] what do you want to be doing when they come upon you?
Speaking for myself, I hope death overtakes me when I’m occupied solely with the care of my character, in an effort to make it passionless, free, unrestricted and unrestrained.
I fell sick when you wanted it: so did others, but I did not complain. I became poor when you wanted, again without complaint. I did not hold office, because you did not want it; and never desired to hold office. Did you ever find me angry for that reason? Did you ever see me any way but with a smile on my face, ready to obey any orders that you had for me? [10] Now you want me to leave the fair, so I go, feeling nothing but gratitude for having been allowed to share with you in the celebration, to get to see your works and comprehend your rule.
It is inevitable if you enter into relations with people on a regular basis, either for conversation, dining or simple friendship, that you will grow to be like them, unless you can get them to emulate you. [2] Place an extinguished piece of coal next to a live one, and either it will cause the other one to die out, or the live one will make the other reignite.
death signifies nothing more than the separation of body and soul.
If they are wise, do not quarrel with them; if they are fools, ignore them.’
Diogenes says somewhere that one way to guarantee freedom is to be ready to die.
if he is unhappy the Great King himself cannot be free,
can anyone possessed of something so grand, glorious and important feel inferior? ‘Impossible.’ [55] Then whenever you see someone grovel before another, or flatter them insincerely, you can safely assume that that person is not free
don’t call him free just yet, acquaint yourself with his judgements, in case they show any sign of constraint, disappointment or disaffection. And if you find him so disposed, call him a slave on holiday at the Saturnalia.10 Say that his master is away; when he returns, the man’s true condition will be made plain to you. [59] ‘When who returns?’ Whoever has the means to give or take away any of the things he values.
No one, you realize, fears Caesar himself, it is death, exile, dispossession, jail and disenfranchisement that they are afraid of.
What can one human being find strange or frightful in a fellow human’s appearance, conversation or companionship generally? Nothing – any more than one horse, or dog, or bee is frightening to another of its kind. People find particular things, however, frightening; and it’s when someone is able to threaten or entice us with those that the man himself becomes frightening.
I, personally, was never kept from something I wanted, nor had forced upon me something I was opposed to. How did I manage it? I submitted my will to God. He wants me to be sick – well, then, so do I. He wants me to choose something. Then I choose it. He wants me to desire something, I desire it. He wants me to get something, I want the same; or he doesn’t want me to get it, and I concur. [90] Thus I even assent to death and torture. Now no one can make me, or keep me, from acting in line with my inclination, any more than they can similarly manipulate God.
It was God brought you into the world, who showed you the light, gave you the people who support you, gave you reason and perception. And he brought you into the world as a mortal, to pass your time on earth with a little endowment of flesh, to witness his design and share for a short time in his feast and celebration. [105] So why not enjoy the feast and pageant while it’s given you to do so; then, when he ushers you out, go with thanks and reverence for what you were privileged for a time to see and hear.
But the festival is over; leave and move on, grateful for what you’ve seen, with your self-respect intact. Make room for other people, it’s their turn to be born, just as you were born,
‘All right; but I’d like my wife and children to remain with me.’ Why? Are they yours? They belong to the one who gave them to you, the same one who created you. Don’t presume to take what isn’t yours, or oppose one who is your better.
‘What did I get externals for, then?’ To use. ‘For how long?’ For as long as the one who gave them decides. ‘And if I can’t live without them?’ Don’t get attached to them and they won’t be. Don’t tell yourself that they’re indispensable and they aren’t.
For true, inviolable, unassailable freedom, yield to God when he asks for something back that he earlier gave you.
as Cleanthes used to say, that what philosophers say may be contrary to expectation, but not to reason.
the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have. And among things outside our control is not only access to, but relief from, public office; not just work, but leisure too.
Everything obeys and serves the universe1 – the land and sea, the sun and other stars, as well as the world’s plants and animals. Our body also obeys it in both sickness and health (whichever it dictates), in youth and old age, and in the course of the body’s other changes. So it is unreasonable that our will, which is in our power, be the only thing to try to resist it.
The nature of the universe was, is and always will be the same, and things cannot happen any differently than they do now.
If we try to adapt our mind to the regular sequence of changes and accept the inevitable with good grace, our life will proceed quite smoothly and harmoniously.
‘persist and resist’.
to object to providence on the grounds that the wicked go unpunished since they are rich and powerful is like saying that, if they lost their sight, they escaped punishment since they still had their fingernails intact. Personally, I say that virtue is more valuable than wealth to the same degree that eyes are more valuable than fingernails.
Take the body – the nastiest and least pleasant thing of all – which we nevertheless love and look after. If we had to look after our neighbour’s body, we’d be sick of it inside of a week. Imagine what it would be like to rise at dawn and brush someone else’s teeth, or wipe their private parts after they’ve answered nature’s call. Really, it’s amazing that we can love something that on a daily basis requires so much of our attention. I stuff this paunch, then empty it; and what could be more tedious? But God must be obeyed, and so I live on and put up with washing, feeding and housing my
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You are a bit of soul carrying around a dead body,
Drop desire altogether and apply aversion to nothing that is not under our control.
‘Poor me, because this happened to me.’ No, say rather, ‘Lucky me, because though this happened to me I’m still happy, neither broken by present circumstance nor afraid for the future.’ Because the same thing could have happened to anyone, but not everyone could have remained content.
Remember from now on whenever something tends to make you unhappy, draw on this principle: ‘This is no misfortune; but bearing with it bravely is a blessing.’
An ignorant person is inclined to blame others for his own misfortune. To blame oneself is proof of progress. But the wise man never has to blame another or himself.
Don’t hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.
Sickness is a problem for the body, not the mind – unless the mind decides that it is a problem.
For every challenge, remember the resources you have within you to cope with it. Provoked by the sight of a handsome man or a beautiful woman, you will discover within you the contrary power of self-restraint. Faced with pain, you will discover the power of endurance. If you are insulted, you will discover patience. In time, you will grow to be confident that there is not a single impression that you will not have the moral means to tolerate.
If you would be free, then, do not wish to have, or avoid, things that other people control, because then you must serve as their slave.
For me every sign is auspicious, if I want it to be, because, whatever happens, I can derive some benefit from it.’
Remember, it is not enough to be hit or insulted to be harmed, you must believe that you are being harmed. If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.
preserve the man of trust and integrity. [5] If you lose that in your zeal to be a public benefactor, what use in the end will you be to the community once you have been rendered shameless and corrupt?
A person who will not stoop to flattery does not get to have the flatterer’s advantages.
It would be unfair and greedy on your part, then, to decline to pay the price that these privileges entail and hope to get them free.
How much is a head of lettuce worth? One obol, perhaps? Now if someone pays an obol and gets the head of lettuce, while you will not pay this much and therefore go without, don’t imagine that you necessarily come off second best. As he has the lettuce, you still have the money.
Reflect on what every project entails in both its initial and subsequent stages before taking it up. Otherwise you will likely tackle it enthusiastically at first, since you haven’t given thought to what comes next; but when things get difficult you’ll wind up quitting the project in disgrace.
Another person will not hurt you without your cooperation; you are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be.
leave desire, fear, and aversion behind, in the assurance that the future, per se, is indifferent, and nothing to you. You can make use of it, whatever it is, and there’s not a soul who can stop you.
Counter temptation by remembering how much better will be the knowledge that you resisted.
