You can’t claim to have lived your life as a philosopher—not even your whole adulthood. You can see for yourself how far you are from philosophy. And so can many others. […] Live life through first principles — to do with good and evil. Nothing is good except what leads to fairness and self-control […] nothing bad except what does the opposite.
Yet a very little while and I am dead and gone; and all things are at end. What then do I care for more than this, that my present action whatsoever it be, may be the proper action of one that is reasonable.
- Don’t be anxious and concentrate on what you have to do.
- It is Nature’s job to constantly alter and change. Yet such changes are according to the logos of the Universe. Nature of any kind, thrives on forward progress. For the rational mind, this comes in behaving logically and selflessly.
- Examine nature as an aggregate, not solely based on its components.
Forbear henceforth to complain of the trouble of a courtly life, either in public before others, or in private by thyself.
Remorse is annoyance at yourself for having passed up something that’s to your benefit. But if it’s to your benefit it must be good—something a truly good person would be concerned about.
But no truly good person would feel remorse at passing up pleasure. So it cannot be to your benefit, or good.
When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic—what defines a human being—is to work with others
Blame no one. Set people straight, if you can. If not, just repair the damage. And suppose you can’t do that either. Then where does blaming people get you?
- Everything has a purpose. Man was not made for pleasure but to work together with others towards progress.
Most justly have these things happened unto thee; why does not thou amend? O but thou hadst rather become good tomorrow; than to be so today?
- Act with human benevolence. Be acted on and accept it as Nature’s course.
Joy for humans lies in human actions.
Human actions: kindness to others, contempt for the senses, the interrogation of appearances, observation of nature and of events in nature.
To erase false perceptions, tell yourself: I have it in me to keep my soul from evil, lust and all confusion. To see things as they are and treat them as they deserve. Don’t overlook this innate ability
- Do not take external obstacles as an excuse to achieving what is in your nature. Action by action, there will be alternatives on the way. 3
Receive temporal blessings without ostentation when they are sent, and thou shalt be able to part with them with all readiness and facility when they are taken from thee again.
In the whole constitution of man, I see not any virtue contrary to justice, whereby it may be resisted and opposed. But one whereby pleasure and voluptuousness may be resisted and opposed, I see continence.
- Whatever is harmful for the senses obstructs its perceptions. Whatever is harmful for the heart obstructs its desires. Whatever is harmful for the mind is harmful for the rational man.
For in those things that properly belong unto the mind, she cannot be hindered by any man. It is not fire, nor iron, nor the power of a tyrant, nor the power of a slandering tongue; nor anything else that can penetrate into her.
I have no right to do myself an injury. Have I ever injured anyone else if I could avoid it?
- Remember: All men find pleasure in different ways.
Give yourself a gift: the present moment.
External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.
If the problem is something in your own character, who’s stopping you from setting your mind straight?
And if it’s that you’re not doing something you think you should be, why not just do it?
—But there are insuperable obstacles.
Then it’s not a problem. The cause of your inaction lies outside you.
—But how can I go on living with that undone?
Then depart, with a good conscience, as if you’d done it, embracing the obstacles too.
- Practice modesty and simplicity
Stick with first impressions. Don’t extrapolate. And nothing can happen to you. Or extrapolate. From a knowledge of all that can happen in the world.
- Ask yourself this: Why do you seek the approval of people who despise themselves?
Other people’s wills are as independent of mine as their breath and bodies. We may exist for the sake of one another, but our will rules its own domain. Otherwise the harm they do would cause harm to me. Which is not what God intended—for my happiness to rest with someone else.
He that feareth death, either feareath that he shall leave no sense at all, or that his senses will not be the same. Whereas, he should rather comfort himself that either no sense at all, and so no sense of evil; or if any sense, then another life, and so no death properly.
All men are made for another: either then teach them better, or bear with them. 4
Links
Footnotes
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You shouldn’t be surprised that a fig tree produces figs, nor the world what it produces. ↩
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Remember that to change your mind and to accept correction are free acts too. The action is yours, based on your own will, your own decision—and your own mind. ↩
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So, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal. ↩
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Thus, empathize with others, and let yourself be understood by others. ↩