Thoughts on Truth - Philosophy

Meditations

I only took parts that related to Stoicism, wisdom, or revealed facts I found interesting. What is here is a combination of paraphrases and quotes.

II

1. begin each day telling yourself you will encounter hardships from others due to their ignorance of what is good or evil, and realizing that you do know the good so they can't harm you for they can't implicate you in what is degrading. You can't be angry with him for that is obstruction and it is against Nature's Law to obstruct your brothers. We were born to work together.

2. Forget books for they were no part of your natural equipment. Concentrate on Reason and cease to fume at destiny by grumbling at today and lamenting over tomorrow.

3. Everything is governed by Providence, and you are a part of the universe and so anything that keeps those parts in being and in line with what is assigned to it is good, but change is necessary to keep the whole world in being.

4. You have procrastinated and have not taken advantage of the further periods of grace the gods have repeadetly granted you. It is time to realize the nature of the universe to which you belong and of the controlling power, and that your time has a limit. Use it to enhance your enlightenment.

5. Always have natural dignity, humanity, independence, and justice and free your mind from all other considerations. htis can be done if you imagine each action to be your last. This is all man needs to master.

6. You are doing wrong to yourself and soon you won't be able (time) to do yourself right. You dont' consider your own honor but are staking your happiness on the approval or censure of others.

7. Don't weary your days in business with lack of any aim on which your effort and thought is focused.

8. Those who pay no heed ot the motions of their sould will surely be unhappy.

9. Remember your nature, the world-Nature, and their relation and that no man can hinder you from conforming your word and deed to Nature.

10. Theophrastus compares sins. Sins of desire (are womanish and against ones volition) are more culpable than sins of passion (usually an involuntary loss of control over injustice).

11. Always remember you can take your own life. If gods exist they won't let you come to harm, if there are no gods or they don't care what good is life then? But gods do exist and do care and have given us the ability to avoid evil. Living and dying, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, riches and poverty are th elot of good men and bad men, they do not elevate or degrade, so they aren't good or bad.

12. We should perceive the swiftness of things vanishing from existence and memory. And observe the nature of the objects of sense, their cheapness, contemptibility and how quickly fading. And apprehend the nature of death that it is a natural process even more a positive contribution to nature's well being, and also what part of man maintains contact with god and how it fares after death.

13. All we must do is serve the divine spirit and hold fast to it by keeping pure from passion, from aimlessness, and from discontent, for the gods deserve reverence for their excellence and men for fraternity and their ignorance of good and bad.

14. All man can do is lose one life, but also keep in mind that all we have is one life, so that the longest life and the shortest life amount to the same thing. Our only loss is the passing minute which is every man's equal possession for he cannot lose what is already passed nor what he does not possess in the future. Only the present can be lost for this is all that is man's. Also remember that the cycles of the world exhibit the same recurring pattern, so it makes no difference how long you watch them repeat.

15. Monimus - "things are determined by the view taken of them."

16. To quarrel with circumstances is to rebel against nature. It is also wrong to reject a fellow creature or oppose him maliciously; to surrender to pleasure or pain; to lie; to waste energy on ends outside of the conformity with the Reason and Law of the primordial city.

17. Man's life is but a moment and an incessant flux and the only guide to his steps come from philosophy. He lists things about being a philosopher and ends with the point that it is Nature's way for us to die and there is nothing evil in nature.

III

1. Death isn't our only concern but also degeneration of the mind. Ther is charm, atractiveness, grace and contributions from even the most unlikely incidentals of Nature.

2. Men of sufficient insight and who have cultivated an intimacy with Nature can find pleasure in these things.

3. We make the journey of life and it comes to an end for everyone. If there is a life afterwards there are gods there too, if ther isn't another life then we are free from the grips of pains and pleasure and are no longer bound to this vessel of clay and corruption, and the divinity of the mind is free.

4. Don't concern yourself with your neighbors' affaries or anything that distracts you from fidelty to Reason, it would be a loss of opportunity for some other task. Habituate your thinking so that if asked what you are thinking you could always respond honestly and without hesitation thus proving all your thoughts are simple and kindly and the type of thoughts that keep you unsullied and impervious to evil. You will be a competitor in the greatest of all contests, the struggle against passion's mastery. And only concerns himself with the opinions of men who live in accord with Nature, all others he reminds himself of their characters and company they keep and their approval has no value for him.

5. Your actions should be with due deliberation, resolution, regard for common interest, willing promtitude, without pretentious over refinement, avoid talkativeness, avoid officiousness, hold your ground, there in is the secret to cheerfulness of depending on no help from without. We have to stand up ourselves, not be set up.

6. Give your whole soul and leave no room for any rival pursuits to your highest ideal. No ambitions of a different nature can contest the title to goodness which belongs to Reason and civil duty. If what is best for yourself is seen as the highest then do you see what is best for you as a reasonable being or best as an animal merely, and so say outrightly.

7. One whose chief regard is for his own mind has no other care but to keep his mind from straying into paths incompatible with those of an intelligent and social being. Not concern for the length of his life, for solitude or for crowds; he won't complain or strike poses. Never desire advantages derived from breach of faith, loss of respect, hatred, suspicion, insincerity, or something that has to be veiled.

8. A mind that is disciplined and purified has no taint of corruption.

9. Respect your power to form an opinion because it allows the helmsman within you to form opinions in accordance with Nature and Reason and can obtain circumspection and good relations with fellow men.

10. Remember man lives only in the fleeting present, and is a little thing in a little corner of the earth, and so is the longest fame, dependence on fast perishing little men who have no knowledge of themselves much less of one long dead and gone.

11. Also analyze every object that presents itself to you to determine its essence, purpose, function, worth in the context of Nature and the supreme city.

12. No man has the power to hold you back from the course of doing right.

13. Keep your principles always in readiness for understanding human and divine and don't forget how intimately connected the two are.

14. Cast away vain hopes, don't mislead yourself, don't read writers of the past just mind yourself and security while you still can.

15. Body, soul, and mind, even beasts and the most degenerate people have the first two, the last is the good man's only singularity.

IV

1. If our minds be true to Nature, it will adjust itself to the possibilities and opportunities provided by circumstance. It is willing to compromise to acheive its aims, hindrances are converted into uses.

3. A philosopher doesn't seek to live in seclusion since he can always retire himself and find the most untroubled peaceful place in his soul, especially if he possesses resources in himself the contemplation of which will give him ease of mind. Make your rules of life brief to embrace the fundamentals and make it easy to return to your duties. Remember if the vices of humanity fret you that we were created for one another, toleration is a part of justice, and that evil is not intentional. Think of the myriad enmities that have vanished with the men who held them and fret no more. Are you in pain? All the mind must do is contemplate itself to be free from the body. Be master of yourself, remember nothing can touch the soul, disquiet can only arise from within, and all visible objects change in a moment and will be no more. Life is what you deem it.

4. The power of reason is universal among mankind so its common conclusions indicate our common citizenship in a single city of humanity with certain laws, and since there is an element for my body and soul, there must also be an origin for my mind (Nothing cannot come from nothing).

5. Death is the anomaly for beings endowed with mind, and is consistent with the plan for our creation.

6. That men of a certain type should behave as they do is inevitable

7. Reject the belief "I have been wronged" and with it will go the feeling, reject the sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

8. What does not corrupt a man himself cannot do him any damage.

9. The laws of collective expediency required this to happan

10. Karma

11. Look at things in their true light, not from the perspective of the arrogant

12. Follow reason and re-evaluate your reasoning if someone shows an error in your judgement all for the sake of justice and common good.

13. At death you will be transmuted back into the creative Reason of the universe.

17. Death is near so make yourself good while life and power are yours.

18. A good man doesn't look for faults in others but presses on towards his mark.

19. Concern for fame, what is it to you anyway? It will eventually die too, and you are concerning yourself on tomorrow and not on what Nature has given you today.

20. Anything beautiful is beautiful in itself not due to something else. Nothing is made any better or worse by praise.

21. Souls exist for a while after death and then go back to their source to make room for new souls, just like what happens with bodies.

22. When you have an impulse first check if it is just, and an impression check its certainty.

23. He indicates his acceptance of the timing and yield of Nature to him.

24. Limit your deeds to what reason deems essential for a social being and you will acquire contentment, this saves time and trouble for superfluous actions and impressions.

25. The good man is content with his position and is only just and charitable.

26. Is someone doing wrong? The wrong is within him. Has something befallen you? It was supposed to before time began.

27. Teleological argument

28. Misogynistic

32. To avoid discouragement don't become absorbed in things that are not the first importance

33. We must only aspire to just thoughts, unselfish acts, truthfulness, and accept one's fate.

36. Observe how things constantly change but whatever is is born from a particular seed and forms from its kind.

39. Nothing is bad or good that happens to bad and good men alike, and anything coming impartially to men can neither be hindering their purposes nor advancing.

42. The process of change is neither an evil or a good.

44. Everything that happens is normal and expected.

45. Everything is harmoniously coordinated.

47. What real difference between a longer and a shorter life span.

49. When something unfortunate happens be happy saying, "How lucky I am, that it has left me with no bitterness, and I am undismayed." Is anything a misfortune that doesn't contravene one's nature? And how can it do that if it is Nature's will? Just, magnanimous, temperate, judicious, discreet, truthful, self respecting, independent are ways that man's nature comes to fulfilment, and does what happened hinder you from being any of these? So when anything tempts you to become bitter say "To bear this worthily is good fortune."

V

5. You have it in your ability to cultivate these qualities: sincerity, dignity, industriousness, and sobriety, be temperate, be frugal, considerate and frank; carry yourself with authority. Avoid grumbling. All these can be yours you have no native incapacity or inaptitude for them.

6. The man who has done a good action does not cry it aloud but simply moves on to perform a second.

8. All causes and even misfortunes are the building blocks of the unified whole, and even if unpalatable we should accept misfortune like our acceptance of something unpleasant for our health in medicine. Receive them gladly for it makes for the health of the universe. Nature only allows that which is designed for its good. Accept what happens because it has been prescribed for you in the tapestry of primordial causation and because everything is part of that which provides for the survival of the universe. Any loss of this chain injures the whole, and discontent does this.

9. Return to the attack after each failure. Enjoy the discipline you return to, don't recur to philosophy like a schoolboy to his master. Your reason should be for private consolation not public display. Pleasure seeks to beguile you by appearing important and impressive. Wouldn't nobility of soul be more agreeable? and candour, simplicity, kindness, and piety? Can anything be more agreeable than the exercise of intellect? Consider the precision and smoothness of reason.

10. Nothing can happen that is not in accordance with nature, and the power to abstain from acting against the divine spirit lies in my own hands, no one can force disobedience upon me. All our intellectual conclusions are fallible, for where is the infallible man? There are no matterial things worth prizing highly or pursuing seriously.

14. Reason is self-sufficient faculty and acquire their initial impetus from itself and travel straight to its own appointed goal.

15. Things outside a man cannot be said to belong to him, and cannot be required for his nature since he is neither perfected by them or promised them. So they cannot be his chief end in life, and if his nature did include such things he could not at the same time have contempt and renounce such things, nor would the ability to do without them be cause for commendation.

16. Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts. The chief good of a rational being is fellowship with his neighbors.

17. To pursue the unattainable is insanity, yet the thoughtless can never refrain from doing so.

18. Nothing can happen to us that nature has not fitted us to endure. Your neighbors experiences are no different from yours.

19. Outward things have no power to sway or move the soul.

20. Others cannot obstruct my will or the disposion of my mind and the mind can turn any obstructions or hindrances into aids.

22. What is not harmful to the city cannot harm the citizen, if someone does harm the city never rage at him but find out at what point his vision failed him.

23. Since everything is constantly changing and practically nothing in infinity a man is foolish to fume and fret as though his time of troubles could be of long continuance.

25. Is one doing me wrong? Let him be concerned with that, his humors and actions are his, I should only be concerned with my natural will and the world nature.

26. Keep sensations of pain and pleasure separate from the domain of reason, if they do invade then mind there is no need to resist the sensation but do not view them as good or bad.

29. If something obliges you to depart life do so, but if not remain here master of yourself and no one shall hinder you from doing what I choose.

30. The mind of the universe is social and the lower forms were created to serve the higher and the higher mutually depend on one another.

31. Reflect on all the considerations you have shown even to the inconsiderate, pleasures and pains and honors you have spurned, and all the other true goods in your life.

33. Remember whatever lies outside of the flesh is not yours nor in your power.

36. Assist those in need so far as you are able and they deserve it, but if their fall is not morally significant be sympathetic to their distress but do not regard them as really injured. So don't be hasty to accept first impressions. Fortune's favorites ar those who give themselves good disposition, good impulses, and good deeds.

VI

1. The reason that controls the universe neither harms nor can be harmed.

2. Do not care about your conditions as long as you are doing right, even death is part of business of life.

3. Look beneath the surface, never let a thing's intrinsic value escape you.

4. All material objects swiftly change: either by sublimation or dispersion.

6. To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.

7. Let your one delight and refreshment be to pass from one service to the community.

9. All things come to their fulfillment as the one universal nature directs.

10. Either the universe is random or a unity of providence. If the former why care about anything?

11. When you are disconcerted by circumstances, lose no time in recovering your self control, habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.

13. Pretentiousness is the arch deceiver and never more delusive than when you imagine your work is most meretorious. Lay everything bare observe its triviality, and strip it of the cloak of verbage that dignifies it.

15. One thing hastens into being another out of being, even while a thing is nascent some part of it has already ceased to be.

16. The only thing to be prized is to work out the purpose of our natural constitutions. Just like the crafts and teachers do everything with a pupose in view, so abandon all your other ambitions or you will never be your own master and never be independent of others. You will also look at others with fear, envy, jealousy, and suspicion that other might rob you of those things. Seeing such things as indispensable leads to turmoil and murmuring. Respect and esteem for your and understanding will keep you at peace.

18. Men don't praise their contemporaries yet they desire the praise of future generations whom they have never seen nor never will see, almost as well grumble at not having praise from one's ancestors.

19. Rather than view something as possible, assume that if something is possible and proper for a man to do it is in your capacity.

20. A simple avoidance of others who have harmed us is always open to us without suspicion or ill will.

21. I seek the truth which never yet hurt anybody, only persistence in self delusion and ignorance does harm.

23. Be generous and liberal towards irrational creatures and material things, since you have reason and they have none, but humans do so treat them with fellowship.

24. Alexander's death was not a wit different from his stable boy's. Either both were received into the source or their atoms were dispersed.

26. Pay attention the separate items making up your duty and do not fuss to ensure completion of your appointed task.

27. Don't deny men their pursuit of what they imagine to be their proper concerns and interests, if they are mistaken then explain it to them rather than being indignant.

28. Death is a release from senses, appetites, excursions from thought, and service to the flesh.

29. Shame on the soul to falter on the road of life while the body still perseveres.

30. Be like Antonius [?]

31. Wake up, recognize they were only dreams that troubled you.

33. Pain is not unnatural, and is not contrary to man's nature if that man is doing man's work. Accordance with nature cannot be evil.

34. What are the pleasures of robbers, perverts, paricides, and tyrants?

35. Is it not deplorable that a craftsman has more respect for this craft than man does for his which he shares with the gods?

36. Everything is a product of something noble and beautiful, so don't think of things as alien.

37. Seeing the present is to see the past and the future for all things are of one kind and form.

38. Think often of the bond between everything and their dependence on one another.

39. Adapt yourself to your lot and show true love to those when destiny has surrounded you.

40. Live and act according to Nature's will for your purpose and all will be in your liking.

41. If you suppose things which you have no control over to be good or bad then it may come about that you blame the gods and your fellow man for your failure or misfortune, and we commit many injustices because of this attachment of importance.

42. We are all working for the same end, some purposely some unconsciously, it remains for you to consider which part you will play so that yours is not that sorry function of the clown on the stage.

44. If the gods determined my fate then it is good, for how could divinity be unwise? What incentive would they have to hurt me? And if they took no thought of me that might still have taken thought of the universe, and I should welcome anything thta is a result of this, if they took no thought of anything I am still able to look after my own interests and a being's interests are in conformity to its nature, and my own nature is a rational and civid one.

The philosopher Menippus pg. 102

47. Only one thing in life is precious, to live in truthfulness and fair dealing and charity to all.

48. There is no surer remedy for dejection than to look at the virtues of those around us.

50. Try to move men by persuasion, act against their will if justice directs. If someone obstructs you turn the obstacle in to an opportunity for the exercise of some other virtue. Remember you were not aiming at the impossible but only at making the attempt itself. In this you succeeded and so the object of your existence is attained.

51. The man of ambition thinks to find his good in others, the man of pleasure in his sensations, the man of understanding in his own actions.

53. Give careful attention to what others are saying and enter into the mind of the speaker.

VII

1. Remind yourself when something evil occurs that evil is everywhere. Everything is as trite as it is transitory.

2. Prinicples become extinct when the first impressions become extinguished, so flame them to not let them die, you can live life anew if you view things in the light of your first and earlier vision. And for things beyond my understanding, they are no concern for it.

4. Closely observe other's words and actions, and make sure what is meant and purposed.

5. If my understanding is equal to a task I use it as a tool provided by nature, if not I leave it fro someone else who is more capable or I do the best I can. Everything I do must have its sole aim the service and harmony of all.

7. Think it no shame to be helped, you have an appointed duty, so in order to accomplish this you might need help from another.

8. Never let the future disturb you for you will meet it with the same weapons that guard you against the present.

13. Constantly tell yourself "I am a limb" of the whole unity of rational things [?Part at the end?]

14. If I do not view the thing as an evil, then I take no hurt, and nothing compels me to view it so.

15. My part in the world is to keep myself good.

17. Happiness is good reason and the absence of vain Fancy.

18. We shrink from change but is any useful thing acheived without change? So change in yourself is no less necessary.

19. Remember in any dealing with any man or thing that it will be engulfed in time.

20. The only thing that should trouble one is the fear of doing something against man's constitution.

21. Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you.

22. Man can love even those who go astray. Remember they are your brothers, they stumble because of ignorance, shortly neither of you will be, and that you have taken no hurt for the master reason is not any worse.

24. An angry look is against nature because the longer it stays the more beauty perishes, if we lose the ability to perceive our faults, what is the good of living on?

26. When anyone offends you, first consider under what conception of good and evil was it committed and your anger will be replaced with pity. For either your ideas of good are no more advanced or are similar in which case it is your duty to pardon him, or you have grown beyond supposing such things to be good and bad, and you will be tolerant of his blindness.

27. Don't think of what you don't have, but think of the things you do possess and how you would creave for them if you didn't, but don't cherish them so dearly that their loss would destroy peace of mind.

29. Do away with all fancies, cease to be passion's puppet, limit time to the present, learn to recognize every experience for what it is. Meditate on your last hour. Leave your neighbors wrong doing to himself.

31. Wear a face of simplicity and self-respect, and of indifference to everything outside the realms of virtue and vice. Love mankind.

33. On pain: let the parts in pain declare their own grief, the mind can retain its own calm, if the pain is past bearing, we die, if it lasts then it can be bourne.

34. On fame: consider those who are interested in such things, their ambitions and aversions.

35. Quote on death from Plato also 44, 45, 46, and 48.

36. Quote from Antisthenes

37. Its a shame the body obeys the mind but the mind doesn't obey itself

53. In actions governed by Reason (which we share with the gods) there is nothing to fear likewise with those in obedience to the laws of our being there is no harm.

54. You always have the power to piously accept the day's happenings, deal justly with others; and full attention to the day's impressions.

55. There is a general law that the lower exists for the sake of the higher and the latter to serve one another, so men must serve one another, and must protect the mind from the flesh.

56. View your life as if you have diedd today and all the future days are a surplus.

57. Love nothing but what is woven into your destiny for what could better suit your needs?

58. Those who greeted a crisis with indignation, astonishment, and outcry got no where, why follow their example? So turn things to good and let your own self approval be your sole aim.

62. Always get to know the characters of those whose approval you wish to earn and their guiding principles, sources of opinions and motives, and you won't blame their involuntary offences.

63. No person for fields truth, justice, self-control, kindliness willfully.

64. There is nothing shameful about pain, nor does it affect Reason (the helm master).

65. When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them like they do to others.

67. It is perfectly possible to be godlike even though not recognized as such, the needs of a happy life are freedom, self respect, unselfishness, and obedience to the will of god.

68. Perfection of character is living everday as one's last, never flustered, never apathetic.

70. The gods live forever and put up with man's misdeeds and still show concern for man, yet you who only loves for a moment, loses patience, and you are one of the culprits.

71. You can flee from your own wickedness.

72. Anything that reason finds unthinking or unbrotherly is inferior.

VIII

1. Nothing can be good for mman unless it makes him just, self-disciplined, courageous and independent, and nothing bad unless it has opposite effect. You will avert complacency if you think you are not a philosopher yet.

7. [Sum of satisfied life]

13. If possible, make it a habit to discover the character of every impression and its effects of yourself.

14. With everyone you meet seek their views on the goodness or badness of things, their positions on pleasure-pain, life-death; repute-irrepute and you won't be surprised by their actions.

17. If the choice is yours why do it? If anothers, all thoughts of blame are out of place. If you can, correct the offender, if not then correct the offense, if not why concern yourself?

18. The element and universe change more often than you and your life and they don't complain.

19. Everything is created for a purpose so what were you created for? The answer of pleasure is ridiculous.

36. ASk yourself when encountering a misfortune "What is there unendurable in this?" and you will be ashamed to admit defeat. You don't have the weight of past and future, only present.

49. Never go beyond your original impressions, supply no additions of your own.

50. Do not say "Why were such bad things brought into the world?" They are byproducts of the good, like carpenter shavings.

52. If one doesn't understand the nature of the universe he cannot know what he is so why care about the applause of multitudes who don't know this?

55. Injury can only be done to oneself, the culprit hurts himself.

58. At death you will either feel nothing and therefore nothing evil, or new sensations and will therefore be a new creature, and so will not have ceased to live.

IX

1. To lie voluntarily and involuntarily is a sin against Nature (the latter for neglecting the faculties Nature gave him to distinguish true from false). It is a sin to pursue pleasure as a good and avoid sin as an evil. It is bound to result in complaints against Nature since the bad so often enjoy pleasure and the means to obtain it while pains often descend on the good. Besides pain and pleasure are not distinguished by Nature and are part of the appointed nature of things, so you too should view them with indifference just like life and death, and fame and dishonor.

2. A man of finer feelings would have taken leave of the world before ever sampling its falsehood, double dealing, luxury and pride; but now since all of these have been tasted to satiety the next best course would be to end your life forthwith or are you resolved to go on dwelling in the midst of iniquity, the worlds pestilence infects the mind which is most dangerous.

3. Smile at death, it is among the things that nature wills just like every other natural process. There is no better solace in the face of death than to think on the surroundings and characters you are leaving, you are parting from men of far other principles. One thing only might hold you back is the chance of fellowship with kindred minds. But when you contemplate the weariness of an existence in company so discordant you cry "Come quickly death, lest I too become forgetful of myself!"

4. The sinner sins against himself.

5. A man not only sins by commission but often by omission.

6. It is enough of your present opinion and action is grounded in unselfish conviction, resolved to be content with whatever befalls you.

14. Everything is banal in experience, fleeting in experience, sordid in content, as all previous generals have found it too.

16. A rational and social being is not affected for better or worse by his feeling but by his will.

20. Leave another's wrong doing where it lies

27. When others are maliciously censuring you, look inside them and you will find little enough reason to get in their good opinion.

28. Things are either isolated units or form an inseparable whole, if the whole be god, then all is well, but if aimless chance at least you need not be aimless also.

29. Who can hope to alter men's convictions, and without change of conviction what can there be but grudging subjection and feigned assent?

35. Loss is nothing but change and change is Nature's delight

39. Either things are from a single intelligent source, in which case no part should complain about what is best for the whole, or there is nothing but atoms so why be harassed?

40. The gods have power or they do not. If they don't why pray to them? If they do then why not ask them to aid you in freeing yourself from feeling certain things since if they can help a man at all it would be most likely in this way.

41. Quote of Epicurus saying his mind could always remain unruffled and pursue the good in spite of the ailments or commotions of the flesh. Concentrate wholly on the task before you and the instrument you possess for its accomplishment.

42. Remember the world can't exist without impudent people so do not ask for impossibilities, same for roguery, double dealing, etc. Also Nature has provided us with antidotes to particular faults: gentleness to brutality, etc. You also have the opportunity to show the culprit his mistake. And none of these things can hurt your mind. See that it is not yourself that you ought to blame for not forseeing they would offend, your reason would make its probability evident, but you forgot and his offense takes you by surprise. The error is yours if you have put faith in a man of that stamp, or if you have done a kindness expecting something in return. Is it not enough that you have done a service to another? That you have obeyed the laws of your nature? You were created for this purpose.

X

2. Pay heed to all the requirements of your physical nature as long as they don't harm the rational and social nature.

3. Nature has either prepared you to endure whatever befalls you or not. If so do not resent it but bear it as she has enabled you to do. Beyond that do not resent for its victory over you will end its existence. But remember that in fact Nature has given you the ability to endure by seeing things as your duty and in your self-interest.

4. If a man makes a mistake, admonish him gently and show it to him, if you fail to convince him blame yourself or no one.

8. If you feel yourself drifting and unable to hold your course make for a quiet haven where you will be able to hold your own, or bid farewell to life altogether freely and unassumingly with at least this one success to your credit, a seemly departure from it.

13. The just and right conduct in another cannot make any difference in myself. Men who are arrogantly ready with their praise or censure are the same in their private lives.

15. Give men the chance to see and know a true man, living by Nature's law. If they cannot brook the sight let them do away with him, better so then to live as they live.

23. Remember the peace of green fields can be yours no matter where you are

25. To give way to fear, grief, or anger is to be a runaway from the law.

28. When you see a man showing annoyance or resentment at anything, think of a pig kicking and squealing under the knife. A man who in solitude silently lamenting is no better. Reasonable beings alone have the power of willingly conforming to circumstance.

Whatever you take in hand ask yourself "is the thought of losing this that which makes me dread death?"

30. When another fault offends you look at your own shortcomings, where do you place your values? You will forget your anger when you realize he is acting under pressure.

31. Think what materials a possibilities for good you are rejecting when you struggle and stain since all your tribulations are exercises for training your reason.

32. No one can hinder you from attaining goodness and integrity this soley depends on yourself. If you cannot live so you need only to live no longer, for in that case not even reason itself could require your continuance.

37. Ask of everyone, but first yourself "What is the object in doing this?"

XI

1. The principle of rationality is the same as principle of justice.

2. With anything that seduces you: music, dance, athletics, etc. break it down into its parts and view them and you will be disenchanted

3. Happiness in accepting whosever fate one has must be a deliberate and grave decision with absence of heroics

9. You must be sure to not destroy your charitable feelings toward those who obstruct or molest you, for you cannot alienate yourself from your natural brothers and friends.

10. All the other virtues depend on justice, and we can never achieve true justice while we set our hearts on things of lesser value and remain credulous, headstrong, and inconstant.

13. Will anyone sneer at me? That will be his concern, mine will be to ensure that nothing I do or say shall deserve the sneer. Will he hate me? Again his concern, mine is to be in friendship and charity with all men, ready to show him where he is mistaken without recrimination or ostentative forbearance.

15. Honesty and sincerity should be evident in ones looks, no need to explicitly say it.

16. Be indifferent to the things that are themselves indifferent by first analyzing the thing's elements and then the thing itself, remembering that it is us that is complete control of the opinion we form of it. If something is not in accordance with nature find out what your own nature enjoins and make the best of your way toward that.

18. When offended remember: 1. brotherly bond; 2) their character and pressure, and self-assurance; 3) They are either right (so you have no justification in complaining) or wrong (in which case it is unintentional); 4) You offend in various ways and have the same inclinations as they do; 5) You have no assurance they are doing wrong, men's motives are not always what they seem; 6) remember how short you must endure life; 7) it is not their deed (which is only the conern of their reason) but our judgement of their deed, and that nothing is bad or harms us but moral disgrace; 8) our anger and annoyance are more harmful than the thing itself; 9) kindness is irresistable. The most consummate impudence can do nothing if you remain consistently kind to the offender.
Temper is no sign of manliness, it is a mark of weakness as is grief, both submit to defeat. There is more virility and natural humanity in one who is gentle and peaceable. To expect bad men not to do bad things is insensate, and to tolerate their offences against others and to expect none against yourself is irrational.

19. Remind yourself, "This is a thought that is not necessary"; "This is one that would undermine my fellowship"; "This is not the voice of my true self"; and when you are tempted into self reproach "This would prove the divine element in me to have been subjected by the flesh."

XII

3. To live your life free from all anxiety you must totally separate the mind from all external things, the other two parts of yourself body and breath, your past and future, and outward circumstance, and live in the present doing what is just, speaking what is true, and consenting to what befalls.

4. Why does man who loves himself beyond all else value our neighbor's judgement of himself more than his own? He wouldn't be able to stand one day of all his private thoughts being made public.

5. The gods who have perfectly planned everything else so benevolently, would have certainly made it so that virtuous men would be reborn unless it was not ordained by Nature, and in this case you can rest assured believe that it ought not be so.

6. Practice even when success looks hopeless.

7. Meditate on what you ought to be when death over takes you.

10. See what things consist of, in their matter, form, and purpose.

14. The world is either: a resistless fate and law, so why struggle against it? A merciful providence, so do your best to deserve its divine succour. Or purposeless chaos, so be happy you have a mind at the helm, if the waters overwhelm you let them take the flesh, breath, and all else but never shipwreck the mind.

20. Avoid all actions that are haphazard or purposeless, and let every action aim at common good.

25. Once dismiss the view you take and you are out of danger, who is hindering this dismissal?

26. When feeling resentment remember: 1) everything is in obedience to nature; 2) any misconduct wasn't yours; 3) this is the way things have always happened and will happen; 4) men's brotherhood; 5) that everything belongs to god, nothing to you; 6) all things depend on opinion; 7) all that one can live or lose is the present moment.

27. Aim at justice, temperance, and fealty to the gods yet with simplicity for that pride under the garb of humility is of all things most intolerable

28. [Arguments for gods' existence]

30. There is unity in all things appearing divided, substance, soul, mind.

31. Following reason and god is incompatible with resentment of death or loss.

34. [?]

36. You are ejected from the city by Nature which brought you into it. And 3 out of the 5 acts of the play is the whole play in the drama of your life. This decision is not yours so pass on your way with a smiling face.