Delphi, Greece - 20071. "A candour affected is a dagger concealed."
2. ”Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart."
3. “'A cucumber is bitter.' Throw it away. 'There are briars in the road.' Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, 'And why were such things made in the world?'”
4. "A good man does not spy around for the black spots in others, but presses unswervingly on towards his mark.”
5. "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."
6. “All is ephemeral,--fame and the famous as well.”
7. “All that is harmony for thee, O Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for thee is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that thy seasons bring, O Nature. All things come of thee, have their being in thee, and return to thee.”
8. “All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other things. For things have been co- ordinated, and they combine to make up the same universe. For there is one universe made up of all things, and one god who pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, and one reason.”
9. “All things are in the act of change; thou thyself in ceaseless transformation and partial decay, and the whole universe with thee.”
10. “All things are the same,--familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.”
11. “All things change, and you yourself are constantly wasting away. So, also, is the universe.”
12. “All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a circle.”
13. "Always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are. 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."
14. "A man is a little soul carrying around a courpse."
15. “A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.”
16. “A man should be upright, not be kept upright.”
17. “And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.”
18. "And you will give yourself peace if you perform each act as if it were your last."
19. ”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.”
20. "As long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence or clearing the way for it."
21. “As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.”
22. ”A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.”
23. “Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.”
24. "Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him, For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away."
25. “Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
26. “Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.”
27. “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.”
28. “Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.”
29. “Death smiles at every man. The only thing a man can do is smile back.”
30. “Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.”
31. "Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig."
32. "Does the light of the lamp shine without losing its splendour until it is extinguished; and shall the truth which is in thee and justice and temperance be extinguished before thy death?"
33. “Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.”
34. "Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain."
35. “Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee. Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, o nature; from thee are all things, in thee are all things, to thee all things return.”
36. “Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.”
37. “Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.”
38. "Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be."
39. “Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.”
40. “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.”
41. "Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ''This is a misfortune'' but ''To bear this worthily is good fortune.''"
42. “He that knows not what the world is, knows not where he is himself. He that knows not for what he was made, knows not what he is nor what the world is.”
43. “He who has a powerful desire for posthumous fame does not consider that every one of those who remember him will himself also die very soon; then again also they who have succeeded them, until the whole remembrance shall have been extinguished as it is transmitted through men who foolishly admire and then perish. But suppose that those who will remember are even immortal, and that the remembrance will be immortal, what good will this do you?”
44. “He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form.”
45. "He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe."
46. "How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it."
47. “How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”
48. “How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks.”
49. “How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.”
50. “How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to every man? For it is soon swallowed up in the eternal. And how small a part of the whole substance? And how small a part of the universal soul? And on what a small clod of the whole earth you creep? Reflecting on all this consider nothing to be great, except to act as your nature leads you, and to endure what the common nature brings.”
51. “How strangely men act. They will not praise those who are living at the same time and living with themselves; but to be themselves praised by posterity, by those whom they have never seen or ever will see, this they set much value on.”
52. "I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will."
53. ”If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”
54. "If thou workest at that which is before thee, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract thee, but keeping thy divine part pure, as if thou shouldst be bound to give it back immediately; if thou holdest to this, 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."
55. “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
56. “If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.”
57. “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”
58. "In one way an arrow moves, in another way the mind. The mind indeed, both when it exercises caution and when it is employed about inquiry, moves straight onward not the less, and to its object."
59. “In reading and writing, you cannot lay down rules until you have learnt to obey them. Much more so in life.”
60. “In the life of a man, his time is but a moment.... his sense, a dim rushlight. All that is body is as coursing waters... all that is of the soul, as dreams, and vapors.”
61. “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?”
62. "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."
63. “Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.”
64. "Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already."
65. "Life itself is neither good nor evil, but only a place for good and evil."
66. “Live with the gods. And he does live with the gods who constantly shows them that his own soul is satisfied with that which is assigned to him, and that it does all that the daemon wishes, which Zeus has given to every person as his guardian and guide, as a portion of himself. And this daemon is everyone's knowledge and reason.”
67. “Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.”
68. “Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.”
69. “Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.”
70. “Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man -- yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.”
71. "Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another."
72. "Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them."
73. “Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, at the seashore, and in the mountains; and you tend to desire such things very much. But this is a characteristic of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power whenever you will to choose to retreat into yourself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retreat than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately perfectly tranquil; and I affirm that tranquillity is nothing other than the proper ordering of the mind.”
74. "Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be able to lay down rules for others before thou shalt have first learned to obey rules thyself."
75. "Never esteem anything as an advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect."
76. ”Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
77. “Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing.”
78. “Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.”
79. "Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life."
80. “Nothing is evil which is according to nature.”
81. “Nothing is more wretched than the man who runs around in circles busying himself with all kinds of things---investigating things below the earth, as the saying goes---always looking for signs of what his neighbors are feeling and thinking. He does not realize that it is enough to be concerned with the spirit within oneself and genuinely to serve it. This service consists in keeping it free from passions, aimlessness, and discontent with its fate at the hands of gods and men.”
82. “Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”
83. “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.”
84. “O world, I am in tune with every note of thy great harmony.
For me nothing is early, nothing late,
if it be timely for thee.
O Nature, all that thy seasons yield is fruit for me.
From thee, and in thee,
and to thee are all things.”
85. “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.”
86. "Our life is what our thoughts make it."
87. "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."
88. "Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go."
89. "Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears."
90. "Remember how long thou hast been putting off these things, and how often thou hast received an opportunity from the gods, and yet dost not use it. Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou art a part, and of what administrator of the universe thy existence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return."
91. "Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery."
92. “Remember that to change your mind and follow him who sets you right is to be none less free that you were before.”
93. “Remember this,--that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.”
94. “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.”
95. “Remember this,--that very little is needed to make a happy life.”
96. “Shame on the soul, to falter on the road of life while the body still endures.”
97. “So keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, free from pretense, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in performing all proper acts. Strive to be the sort of person which philosophy wishes to make of you. Revere the gods and help others. Life is short. There is only one fruit of this earthly life: a pious disposition and social acts. Asia, Europe are corners of the universe; all the sea a drop in the universe; Athos, a little clod of the universe: all the present time is a point in eternity. All things are little, changeable, perishable. All things come from thence, from that universal ruling power either directly proceeding or by way of sequence. And accordingly the lion's gaping jaws, and that which is poisonous, and every harmful thing, like thorns, like mud, are after-products of the grand and beautiful. Do not then imagine that they are of another kind from that which you venerate, but form a just opinion of the source of all.”
98. "Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts."
99. "Take away thy 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."
100. "That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees."
101. “The act of dying is also one of the acts of life.”
102. “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.”
103. “"The earth loveth the shower," and "the holy ether knoweth what love is." The Universe, too, loves to create whatsoever is destined to be made.”
104. "The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and
know them for what they are."
105. "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature."
106. “The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.”
107. “The man who doesn't know what the universe is doesn't know where he lives.”
108. “The nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things that are and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.”
109. “The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
110. “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
111. “There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains and infinite other things. There is one common substance, though it is distributed among countless bodies which have their several qualities. There is one soul, though it is distributed among several natures and individual limitations. There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.”
112. “The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.”
113. “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
114. "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."
115. "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."
116. "Things themselves touch not the soul, not in the least degree; nor have they admission to the soul, nor can they turn or move the soul: but the soul turns and moves itself alone, and whatever judgements it may think proper to make, such it makes for itself the things which present themselves to it."
117. “This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs.”
118. “This you must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole, and what is my nature, and how this is related to that, and what kind of a part it is of what kind of a whole; and that there is no-one who hinders you from always doing and saying the things which are according to the nature of which you are a part.”
119. “Thou hast embarked,
Thou hast made the voyage,
Thou art come to shore.
Get out.”
120. “Though you break your heart, men will go on as before.”
121. “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.”
122. “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.”
123. "Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."
124. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
125. "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."
126. “Whatever happens at all happens as it should; you will find this true, if you watch narrowly.”
127. "Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time."
128. “Whatever may befall thee, it was preordained for thee from everlasting.”
129. “Whatever may happen to you was prepared for you from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of your being.”
130. “Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and the ruling part.”
131. “What is evil in you does not subsist in the ruling principle of another; nor in any part or transformation of your physical body. Where is it then? It is in that part of you in which has the power of forming opinions about evils. Let this power then not form such opinions, and all is well. And if that which is nearest to it the poor body is burnt, filled with excrescences and decay, nevertheless let the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet; that is, let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.”
132. “What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.”
133. "Where a man can live, he can also live well."
134. "Wilt thou, then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked, more manifest than the body which surrounds thee? Wilt thou never enjoy an affectionate and contented disposition? Wilt thou never be full and without a want of any kind, longing for nothing more, nor desiring anything, either animate or inanimate, for the enjoyment of pleasures? Nor yet desiring time wherein thou shalt have longer enjoyment, or place, or pleasant climate, or society of men with whom thou mayest live in harmony? But wilt thou be satisfied with thy present condition, and pleased with all that is about thee, and wilt thou convince thyself that thou hast everything and that it comes from the gods, that everything is well for thee, and will be well whatever shall please them, and whatever they shall give for the conservation of the perfect living being, the good and just and beautiful, which generates and holds together all things, and contains and embraces all things which are dissolved for the production of other like things? Wilt thou never be such that thou shalt so dwell in community with gods and men as neither to find fault with them at all, nor to be condemned by them?"
135. "...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."
2. ”Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart."
3. “'A cucumber is bitter.' Throw it away. 'There are briars in the road.' Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, 'And why were such things made in the world?'”
4. "A good man does not spy around for the black spots in others, but presses unswervingly on towards his mark.”
5. "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."
6. “All is ephemeral,--fame and the famous as well.”
7. “All that is harmony for thee, O Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for thee is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that thy seasons bring, O Nature. All things come of thee, have their being in thee, and return to thee.”
8. “All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other things. For things have been co- ordinated, and they combine to make up the same universe. For there is one universe made up of all things, and one god who pervades all things, and one substance, and one law, and one reason.”
9. “All things are in the act of change; thou thyself in ceaseless transformation and partial decay, and the whole universe with thee.”
10. “All things are the same,--familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.”
11. “All things change, and you yourself are constantly wasting away. So, also, is the universe.”
12. “All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a circle.”
13. "Always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are. 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."
14. "A man is a little soul carrying around a courpse."
15. “A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.”
16. “A man should be upright, not be kept upright.”
17. “And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.”
18. "And you will give yourself peace if you perform each act as if it were your last."
19. ”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.”
20. "As long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence or clearing the way for it."
21. “As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.”
22. ”A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.”
23. “Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.”
24. "Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him, For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away."
25. “Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
26. “Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.”
27. “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.”
28. “Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.”
29. “Death smiles at every man. The only thing a man can do is smile back.”
30. “Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.”
31. "Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig."
32. "Does the light of the lamp shine without losing its splendour until it is extinguished; and shall the truth which is in thee and justice and temperance be extinguished before thy death?"
33. “Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.”
34. "Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain."
35. “Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee. Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, o nature; from thee are all things, in thee are all things, to thee all things return.”
36. “Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.”
37. “Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.”
38. "Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be."
39. “Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.”
40. “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.”
41. "Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ''This is a misfortune'' but ''To bear this worthily is good fortune.''"
42. “He that knows not what the world is, knows not where he is himself. He that knows not for what he was made, knows not what he is nor what the world is.”
43. “He who has a powerful desire for posthumous fame does not consider that every one of those who remember him will himself also die very soon; then again also they who have succeeded them, until the whole remembrance shall have been extinguished as it is transmitted through men who foolishly admire and then perish. But suppose that those who will remember are even immortal, and that the remembrance will be immortal, what good will this do you?”
44. “He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form.”
45. "He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe."
46. "How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it."
47. “How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”
48. “How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks.”
49. “How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.”
50. “How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to every man? For it is soon swallowed up in the eternal. And how small a part of the whole substance? And how small a part of the universal soul? And on what a small clod of the whole earth you creep? Reflecting on all this consider nothing to be great, except to act as your nature leads you, and to endure what the common nature brings.”
51. “How strangely men act. They will not praise those who are living at the same time and living with themselves; but to be themselves praised by posterity, by those whom they have never seen or ever will see, this they set much value on.”
52. "I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will."
53. ”If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”
54. "If thou workest at that which is before thee, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract thee, but keeping thy divine part pure, as if thou shouldst be bound to give it back immediately; if thou holdest to this, 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."
55. “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
56. “If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.”
57. “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”
58. "In one way an arrow moves, in another way the mind. The mind indeed, both when it exercises caution and when it is employed about inquiry, moves straight onward not the less, and to its object."
59. “In reading and writing, you cannot lay down rules until you have learnt to obey them. Much more so in life.”
60. “In the life of a man, his time is but a moment.... his sense, a dim rushlight. All that is body is as coursing waters... all that is of the soul, as dreams, and vapors.”
61. “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?”
62. "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."
63. “Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.”
64. "Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already."
65. "Life itself is neither good nor evil, but only a place for good and evil."
66. “Live with the gods. And he does live with the gods who constantly shows them that his own soul is satisfied with that which is assigned to him, and that it does all that the daemon wishes, which Zeus has given to every person as his guardian and guide, as a portion of himself. And this daemon is everyone's knowledge and reason.”
67. “Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.”
68. “Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.”
69. “Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.”
70. “Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man -- yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.”
71. "Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another."
72. "Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them."
73. “Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, at the seashore, and in the mountains; and you tend to desire such things very much. But this is a characteristic of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power whenever you will to choose to retreat into yourself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retreat than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately perfectly tranquil; and I affirm that tranquillity is nothing other than the proper ordering of the mind.”
74. "Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be able to lay down rules for others before thou shalt have first learned to obey rules thyself."
75. "Never esteem anything as an advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect."
76. ”Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
77. “Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing.”
78. “Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.”
79. "Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life."
80. “Nothing is evil which is according to nature.”
81. “Nothing is more wretched than the man who runs around in circles busying himself with all kinds of things---investigating things below the earth, as the saying goes---always looking for signs of what his neighbors are feeling and thinking. He does not realize that it is enough to be concerned with the spirit within oneself and genuinely to serve it. This service consists in keeping it free from passions, aimlessness, and discontent with its fate at the hands of gods and men.”
82. “Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”
83. “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.”
84. “O world, I am in tune with every note of thy great harmony.
For me nothing is early, nothing late,
if it be timely for thee.
O Nature, all that thy seasons yield is fruit for me.
From thee, and in thee,
and to thee are all things.”
85. “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.”
86. "Our life is what our thoughts make it."
87. "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."
88. "Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go."
89. "Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears."
90. "Remember how long thou hast been putting off these things, and how often thou hast received an opportunity from the gods, and yet dost not use it. Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou art a part, and of what administrator of the universe thy existence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return."
91. "Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery."
92. “Remember that to change your mind and follow him who sets you right is to be none less free that you were before.”
93. “Remember this,--that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.”
94. “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.”
95. “Remember this,--that very little is needed to make a happy life.”
96. “Shame on the soul, to falter on the road of life while the body still endures.”
97. “So keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, free from pretense, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in performing all proper acts. Strive to be the sort of person which philosophy wishes to make of you. Revere the gods and help others. Life is short. There is only one fruit of this earthly life: a pious disposition and social acts. Asia, Europe are corners of the universe; all the sea a drop in the universe; Athos, a little clod of the universe: all the present time is a point in eternity. All things are little, changeable, perishable. All things come from thence, from that universal ruling power either directly proceeding or by way of sequence. And accordingly the lion's gaping jaws, and that which is poisonous, and every harmful thing, like thorns, like mud, are after-products of the grand and beautiful. Do not then imagine that they are of another kind from that which you venerate, but form a just opinion of the source of all.”
98. "Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts."
99. "Take away thy 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."
100. "That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees."
101. “The act of dying is also one of the acts of life.”
102. “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.”
103. “"The earth loveth the shower," and "the holy ether knoweth what love is." The Universe, too, loves to create whatsoever is destined to be made.”
104. "The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and
know them for what they are."
105. "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature."
106. “The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.”
107. “The man who doesn't know what the universe is doesn't know where he lives.”
108. “The nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things that are and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.”
109. “The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
110. “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
111. “There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains and infinite other things. There is one common substance, though it is distributed among countless bodies which have their several qualities. There is one soul, though it is distributed among several natures and individual limitations. There is one intelligent soul, though it seems to be divided.”
112. “The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.”
113. “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
114. "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."
115. "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."
116. "Things themselves touch not the soul, not in the least degree; nor have they admission to the soul, nor can they turn or move the soul: but the soul turns and moves itself alone, and whatever judgements it may think proper to make, such it makes for itself the things which present themselves to it."
117. “This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs.”
118. “This you must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole, and what is my nature, and how this is related to that, and what kind of a part it is of what kind of a whole; and that there is no-one who hinders you from always doing and saying the things which are according to the nature of which you are a part.”
119. “Thou hast embarked,
Thou hast made the voyage,
Thou art come to shore.
Get out.”
120. “Though you break your heart, men will go on as before.”
121. “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.”
122. “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.”
123. "Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."
124. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
125. "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."
126. “Whatever happens at all happens as it should; you will find this true, if you watch narrowly.”
127. "Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time."
128. “Whatever may befall thee, it was preordained for thee from everlasting.”
129. “Whatever may happen to you was prepared for you from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of your being.”
130. “Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and the ruling part.”
131. “What is evil in you does not subsist in the ruling principle of another; nor in any part or transformation of your physical body. Where is it then? It is in that part of you in which has the power of forming opinions about evils. Let this power then not form such opinions, and all is well. And if that which is nearest to it the poor body is burnt, filled with excrescences and decay, nevertheless let the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet; that is, let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.”
132. “What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.”
133. "Where a man can live, he can also live well."
134. "Wilt thou, then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked, more manifest than the body which surrounds thee? Wilt thou never enjoy an affectionate and contented disposition? Wilt thou never be full and without a want of any kind, longing for nothing more, nor desiring anything, either animate or inanimate, for the enjoyment of pleasures? Nor yet desiring time wherein thou shalt have longer enjoyment, or place, or pleasant climate, or society of men with whom thou mayest live in harmony? But wilt thou be satisfied with thy present condition, and pleased with all that is about thee, and wilt thou convince thyself that thou hast everything and that it comes from the gods, that everything is well for thee, and will be well whatever shall please them, and whatever they shall give for the conservation of the perfect living being, the good and just and beautiful, which generates and holds together all things, and contains and embraces all things which are dissolved for the production of other like things? Wilt thou never be such that thou shalt so dwell in community with gods and men as neither to find fault with them at all, nor to be condemned by them?"
135. "...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."
