Book XI

1. The properties of the rational soul: it sees itself, articulates itself, makes itself whatever it wills; it harvests the fruit it bears itself—for the fruits of plants, and their counterparts in animals, are harvested by others. It attains its own end wherever the boundary of life overtakes it. It is not as in a dance, a play, or the like, where the whole action is left incomplete if something interrupts it; at every part, and wherever it is caught, it brings what it has undertaken to fullness and self-sufficiency, so that it can say: “I have all that is mine.” Moreover, it ranges through the whole cosmos, the void surrounding it, and its form; it reaches into the infinity of time, embraces and comprehends the periodic rebirth of all things, and beholds that those after us will see nothing new, nor did those before us see anything beyond what we see: in a certain sense, a person of forty, if possessed of any understanding at all, has seen everything that has been and everything that will be, by reason of their likeness. It belongs to the rational soul also to love one’s neighbors, to be truthful and self-respecting, and to value nothing above itself—which is also the property of law. And so there is no difference between right reason and the reason of justice.

2. You will look down on a beguiling song, a dance, and the pancratium if you divide the melodious voice into each of its notes and ask yourself, at every one, whether you are its inferior—for the question will shame you. Do the corresponding thing with a dance, movement by movement and pose by pose, and likewise with the pancratium. In general, then—virtue and the works of virtue excepted—remember to hurry to the separate parts and, by dividing things up, arrive at disdain for them; and carry this same practice over into the whole of life.

3. What a soul is this: ready, if it must now be released from the body, either to be extinguished, dispersed, or to endure. But let this readiness arise from its own judgment—not from mere defiant formation, as with the Christians, but with reflection and dignity, and so as to persuade another, without theatrical display.

4. Have I done something for the common good? Then I have benefited. Let this thought always meet you ready to hand, and never cease from it.

5. What is your craft? To be good. And how is this achieved except through principles—some concerning the nature of the Whole, others concerning the particular constitution of the human being?

6. Tragedies were first produced as reminders of what befalls us: that such things naturally happen in this way, and that what delights you upon the stage must not distress you upon the greater stage. For you see that these things must reach their ending so, and that even those who cry aloud,

“Ah, Cithaeron!”

bear them. Some useful things, too, are said by the playwrights—above all, this:

“Though the gods neglect both me and my two children,this too has its reason.”

And again:

“One must not rage against events.”

And:

“To reap life like a fruitful ear of grain.”

And all sayings of that kind.

After tragedy came Old Comedy, which possessed a schoolmaster’s freedom of speech and, by its very plainness of utterance, gave a not unhelpful reminder against vanity. Diogenes, too, used it for something like this purpose. Consider, after that, what Middle Comedy was, and then what purpose New Comedy was adopted to serve, as it gradually flowed away into artistry founded on imitation. It is well known that these poets also say some useful things; but what goal did the whole design of such poetry and playmaking ever have in view?

7. How luminously clear it is that no setting for life is so well suited to philosophy as this one in which you now find yourself.

8. A branch cut from the branch adjoining it cannot but be cut also from the whole tree. Just so, a human being severed from one human being has fallen away from the whole community. Now, another person cuts off a branch; but a human being separates himself from his neighbor by hatred and aversion, unaware that he has thereby cut himself away from the whole commonwealth at the same time. Yet there is this gift from Zeus, who formed the community: we are able to grow together again with the branch beside us and once more become parts that complete the whole. If such division happens often, however, it makes the part that withdraws difficult to reunite and difficult to restore. In every respect, the branch that grew together from the first and remained sharing one life and breath is not like the one grafted back after being cut away—whatever the gardeners may say.

To grow from the same stock, but not to share the same creed.

9. Those who stand in your way as you advance according to right reason will be no more able to turn you from sound action than they should be able to drive you from goodwill toward them. Guard yourself with equal care in both: not only in steadiness of judgment and action, but also in gentleness toward those who try to hinder you or otherwise treat you harshly. For anger with them is weakness too, no less than abandoning the action and surrendering in fright. Both are deserters alike: the one who shrinks back, and the one who becomes estranged from his natural kinsman and friend.

10. No nature is inferior to art—for the arts themselves imitate nature. If this is so, the nature most perfect and all-embracing of all could not fall short of art’s resourceful skill. And every art makes lesser things for the sake of greater; therefore universal Nature does so too. From this arises justice, and from justice the remaining virtues have their foundation. For justice will not be preserved if we set differing values upon indifferent things, or if we are easily deceived, impulsive, and changeable.

11. The things whose pursuit and avoidance throw you into turmoil do not come to you; rather, in a manner, you go to them yourself. Then let your judgment about them grow quiet, and they will remain motionless too; and you will be seen neither pursuing nor fleeing.

12. A soul: a sphere true to its own form, when it neither reaches outward toward anything, nor races inward; neither coils itself nor sinks down, but shines with the light by which it sees the truth of all things and the truth within itself.

13. Will someone despise me? That is for him to see to. But I shall see to it that I am not found doing or saying anything worthy of contempt. Will he hate me? That is for him to see to. But I shall remain kindly and well-disposed toward everyone—and toward this very man, ready to show him where he has gone astray, not reproachfully, nor as if making a display of my forbearance, but genuinely and graciously, like Phocion of old, if indeed his manner was not a pose. For such must be the inward state: the gods must behold a human being disposed to resent nothing and make no tragedy of anything. What evil can touch you, if you yourself are now doing what belongs to your nature and welcoming what is timely now for the nature of the Whole—a human being intent upon becoming, by whatever means, an instrument of the common good?

14. Despising one another, they court one another’s favor; wishing to rise above one another, they bow and scrape before one another.

15. How rotten and counterfeit is the man who says, “I have resolved to deal candidly with you.” What are you doing, man? This needs no announcement. It will reveal itself; it should be written on your forehead. At once your voice should ring with it; at once it should stand out in your eyes, just as the beloved knows everything at once in the lover’s gaze. In a word, the candid and good man should be like a strong scent: whoever stands near him must perceive it as soon as he approaches, whether he wishes to or not. A studied simplicity is a hidden blade. Nothing is uglier than a wolf’s friendship. Flee that above all. The good, candid, kindly man bears all this in his eyes, and it does not escape notice.

16. To live life in the noblest way—the power for this lies in the soul, if one is indifferent to things indifferent. And one will be indifferent if one contemplates each of them both part by part and as a whole, remembering that none of them implants in us a judgment about itself, nor comes against us. The things themselves remain still; it is we who beget judgments about them and, as it were, inscribe them within ourselves—though we may leave them unwritten and, if one slips in unnoticed, erase it at once. Remember, too, that such watchfulness will last only a little while, and then life will be over. Yet what difficulty is there in these things? If they accord with nature, rejoice in them, and they will be easy for you. If they are contrary to nature, seek what accords with your own nature and hasten toward it, even if it brings no glory; for everyone is forgiven for seeking his own good.

17. Whence each thing has come; from what underlying elements each is formed; into what it changes; what it will be when changed; and how it will suffer no evil.

18. First: what my relation is to them; that we came into being for one another; and that, by another reckoning, I came into being to stand at their head, as the ram stands over a flock or the bull over a herd. But begin from higher ground, from this: if there are not atoms, then there is a Nature governing the Whole; and if so, the lesser exist for the sake of the better, and the better for one another.

Second: what sort of people they are at table, in bed, and in all else; above all, what compulsions their doctrines lay upon them—and with what conceit they perform these very acts.

Third: if they do these things rightly, there is no cause for indignation; if not rightly, plainly they act unwillingly and in ignorance. For every soul is unwillingly deprived of truth, just as it is unwillingly deprived of treating each person according to his worth. At any rate, people resent hearing themselves called unjust, ungrateful, grasping, or in any way offenders against their neighbors.

Fourth: you too commit many wrongs and are another such as they. Even if you refrain from certain wrongs, you still possess the disposition capable of producing them, though cowardice, concern for reputation, or some similar evil may keep you from like offenses.

Fifth: you have not even grasped that they are doing wrong. Many things are done as part of some larger management; and, in general, one must first learn a great deal before making a well-grounded pronouncement upon another’s action.

Sixth: whenever you are excessively indignant or distressed, remember that human life is a moment, and in a little while we shall all be laid out dead.

Seventh: it is not their actions that trouble us; those actions lie within their own ruling minds. It is our judgments. Remove, then—resolve to cast away—the judgment that this is something terrible, and the anger is gone. How will you remove it? By reasoning that it is not shameful to you. For unless the shameful alone is evil, you too must inevitably commit many wrongs and become a robber and every kind of villain.

Eighth: how much harsher are the anger and grief these things provoke than the very things at which we are angry and grieved.

Ninth: kindness is invincible, if it is genuine and not a sneer or a pretense. For what can the most insolent man do to you if you remain kind to him and, when occasion offers, gently counsel him and quietly teach him better at the very moment he tries to do you harm? “No, child. We were born for something else. I shall not be harmed; it is you who are harmed, child.” Show him, with tact and from the whole view, that this is so: that not even bees act as he does, nor any creatures born to live in herds. But you must do it neither ironically nor reproachfully, but affectionately, with no sting in your soul—not as if lecturing him, nor to make some bystander admire you, but as though you were alone with him, even if others happen to be standing around.

Remember these nine precepts as gifts received from the Muses, and begin at last to be a human being while you are alive. Yet you must guard as carefully against flattering them as against becoming angry with them: both are contrary to fellowship and lead to harm. When anger rises, keep ready the thought that rage is not manly; rather, gentleness and mildness, being more human, are also more virile. It is the gentle man who has strength, sinew, and courage, not the indignant and discontented. The nearer gentleness is to freedom from passion, the nearer it is to power. Just as grief belongs to weakness, so does anger: in both, men have been wounded and have yielded.

And, if you wish, receive a tenth gift from the Leader of the Muses: to expect bad men never to go wrong is madness, for it desires the impossible. But to permit them to be such toward others while expecting them never to wrong you is unfeeling and tyrannical.

19. Four turnings of the ruling mind must above all be watched continually; and whenever you detect one, wipe it away, saying over each: “This impression is unnecessary”; “This dissolves fellowship”; “What you are about to say does not come from yourself”—and regard speaking what does not come from yourself as among the most monstrous of things. The fourth is that for which you reproach yourself: because this means that the diviner part within you has been defeated and bows beneath the baser, mortal portion—the body and its gross pleasures.

20. All in you that is breath and fire, however much has been mingled into you, is by nature upward-borne; yet, obedient to the ordering of the Whole, it is held here within the compound. And all in you that is earth and water, though by nature downward-borne, has nevertheless been raised and stands in a position not naturally its own. Thus even the elements obey the Whole: once assigned their place, they remain bound there under compulsion until from that same source the signal again gives leave for their dissolution.

Is it not dreadful, then, that your rational part alone should disobey and resent its appointed place? And yet nothing violent is laid upon it, but only what accords with its own nature; still it will not bear this, but rushes the opposite way. For its movement toward injustice, self-indulgence, anger, grief, and fear is nothing other than a revolt from nature. And whenever the ruling mind takes offense at anything that happens, then too it deserts its own station; for it was fashioned for holiness and reverence toward the divine no less than for justice. These also belong to the form of fellowship—indeed, they are prior even to just deeds.

21. “One who does not always have one and the same aim in life cannot remain one and the same throughout life.” But this saying is not enough unless you add what that aim must be. For just as people do not hold a like conception of every sort of thing that the majority somehow judges good, but only of certain goods—namely, those held in common—so the aim you set must be communal and civic. Whoever directs every impulse of his own toward this aim will render all his actions harmonious and, in this respect, will always remain the same.

22. The mountain mouse and the house mouse—and the latter’s terror and frantic scurrying.

23. Socrates called the opinions of the multitude Lamias—bogeys for children.

24. At public spectacles the Spartans would place seats for visitors in the shade; they themselves sat wherever chance allowed.

25. When Perdiccas asked why Socrates would not come to him, Socrates said: “So that I may not perish by the worst of deaths”—that is, by receiving kindness and being unable to return it.

26. Among the writings of the Epicureans stood this precept: continually call to mind some figure from the past who made virtue his practice.

27. The Pythagoreans said: At dawn, look up into the heavens, that we may remember those bodies which forever accomplish their work along the same paths and in the same manner—and remember their order, their purity, their nakedness; for no veil lies before a star.

28. Socrates, with only the sheepskin wrapped about him, when Xanthippe took his cloak and went out—and what Socrates said to his companions when, ashamed at seeing him dressed so, they drew away.

29. In writing and reading, you will not begin to lead before you have been led. Far more is this true in life.

30. A slave you were born; you have no share in reasoned speech.

31. And my own dear heart laughed.

32. They will rail against virtue, uttering bitter words.

33. To seek a fig in winter is the act of a madman. Such is the man who seeks his child when the child is granted him no longer.

34. When kissing your child, Epictetus said, you should say inwardly: “Tomorrow, perhaps, he will die.”

“Those are words of ill omen.”

“Nothing,” he said, “is ill-omened in naming a work of nature—or else it is ill-omened to say that the ears of grain will be reaped.”

35. Sour grape, ripe cluster, raisin: all are transformations—not into what is not, but into what is not yet.

36. There can be no robber of the power to choose. This is Epictetus’ saying.

37. “We must,” he said, “discover an art of giving assent; and in the sphere of impulses we must preserve attentiveness, so that they may be made with reservation, may serve fellowship, and may accord with worth. We must abstain from desire altogether, and employ aversion toward none of the things that are not up to us.”

38. “The contest, then,” he said, “is no casual matter, but whether we are to be mad or not.”

39. Socrates said:

“What do you want: to have the souls of rational beings, or of irrational?”

“Of rational beings.”

“What kind of rational beings—sound or corrupt?”

“Sound.”

“Why, then, do you not seek them?”

“Because we have them.”

“Why, then, do you fight and quarrel?”

1. These are the rational soul’s own qualities: it sees itself, examines and organizes itself, and makes itself whatever it chooses to be. It receives the fruit it produces itself, whereas other people receive the fruits of plants and the corresponding products of animals. It reaches its own proper completion wherever the end of life finds it. This is unlike a dance, a dramatic performance, or anything similar, where an interruption leaves the whole action unfinished. At every stage, and wherever it is stopped, the rational soul can make what it set out to do complete and sufficient in itself, so that it can say, “I have received everything that is mine.” It also travels in thought through the entire universe, the empty space around it, and its shape. It extends into the infinity of time, takes in and understands the periodic renewal of all things, and sees that our descendants will see nothing new and our ancestors saw nothing more remarkable. In a sense, a forty-year-old with even a little understanding has already seen everything that has happened and everything that will happen, because it all belongs to the same kinds. Other qualities proper to a rational soul are loving those near us, truthfulness, self-respect, and placing nothing above itself. This last quality also belongs to law. So right reason and the reason that governs justice are no different.

2. You will cease to admire a pleasing song, a dance, or a pancration contest if you break the musical voice down into its individual notes and ask yourself about each note, “Am I unable to resist this?” You will be ashamed to say so. Do the same with a dance by considering each movement or pose separately, and likewise with the pancration. In general, except in the case of virtue and what comes from virtue, remember to go straight to the individual parts of things. By analyzing them into parts, you will stop overvaluing them. Apply the same method to life as a whole.

3. Consider the kind of soul that is ready, if it must leave the body now, either to be extinguished, scattered, or to continue existing. Its readiness should come from its own considered judgment, not from mere defiance like that of the Christians. It should be rational and dignified, capable of convincing someone else, and free of dramatic display.

4. Have I done something that benefits the community? Then I have benefited myself. Always keep this thought available, and never stop acting on it.

5. What is your profession? Being a good person. How can you do that except through principles about the nature of the universe and about the particular way a human being is constituted?

6. Tragedies were originally produced to remind us of what happens in life: these events naturally occur as they do, and the things that entertain you on the stage should not upset you on the larger stage of life. You can see that these events must end this way and that even the people who cry,

“Oh, Cithaeron!”

endure them. Playwrights also say some useful things, especially this:

“If the gods have neglected me and my two children,even this has a reason.”

And again:

“We should not be angry with events.”

And:

“To harvest life like a ripe, fruitful ear of grain.”

And other sayings like these.

After tragedy came Old Comedy. It spoke freely like a teacher and, through its direct language, usefully reminded people not to be conceited. Diogenes also used it for a similar purpose. Next consider what Middle Comedy was, and then what purpose New Comedy came to serve as it gradually turned into an elaborate art of imitation. Everyone knows that these poets also say some useful things. But what was the overall aim of this kind of poetry and playwriting?

7. It is perfectly clear that no situation in life is better suited to practicing philosophy than the one you are in now.

8. When a branch is cut away from the branch connected to it, it is necessarily cut away from the whole tree as well. In the same way, a person who separates himself from another person has fallen away from the whole community. Someone else cuts off a branch, but a person separates himself from his neighbor by hating and rejecting him. He does not realize that he has also cut himself off from the entire human commonwealth. Still, Zeus, who formed the community, has given us this gift: we can grow together again with the person next to us and once more become parts that help complete the whole. But if this kind of separation happens repeatedly, it makes the separated part hard to reunite and restore. In general, a branch that grew together with the tree from the beginning and remained joined to it in one living breath is not the same as one grafted back after it was cut off, whatever gardeners may say.

Grow from the same stock, but do not hold the same beliefs.

9. People who obstruct you while you proceed according to right reason cannot turn you away from sound action. In the same way, do not let them knock you out of your goodwill toward them. Be equally careful in both respects: keep your judgment and action steady, and remain gentle toward people who try to stop you or otherwise make things difficult. Getting angry with them is also a weakness, just as it is weak to abandon what you are doing and give in because you are frightened. Both people are deserters: the person who retreats and the person who alienates himself from someone who is by nature his relative and friend.

10. Nature is never less capable than a craft, since crafts imitate nature. If that is true, then the nature that is the most complete and includes all others cannot lack the resourcefulness found in craftsmanship. Every craft makes inferior things for the sake of superior ones, and universal Nature must do the same. This is the source of justice, and the other virtues are founded on justice. Justice cannot be maintained if we treat indifferent things as though some truly matter more than others, or if we are easily deceived, rush into judgments, and keep changing our minds.

11. The things that disturb you because you want them or want to avoid them are not coming after you. In a sense, you are the one going toward them. So let your judgment about them become quiet. They will remain still, and you will no longer appear to be chasing them or running away from them.

12. The soul is a sphere that keeps its own shape when it does not stretch outward toward anything or contract inward, when it is neither twisted nor collapsed, but shines with the light by which it sees the truth of everything and the truth within itself.

13. Will someone despise me? That is his concern. My concern is not to be found doing or saying anything deserving contempt. Will he hate me? That is his concern. I will stay kind and friendly toward everyone, including him, and be ready to point out his mistake—not as a reproach, and not to show off how tolerant I am, but sincerely and helpfully, like the famous Phocion, if he was not merely pretending. This is how a person must be inwardly, so that the gods see someone who resents nothing and treats nothing as a calamity. What harm is there for you if you are now doing what suits your own nature and accepting what is now timely for the nature of the universe, as a human being determined to become, in whatever way possible, a means to the common good?

14. People despise one another while trying to please one another, and while wanting to be superior to one another, they grovel before one another.

15. How false and corrupt it is to say, “I have decided to be straightforward with you.” What are you doing? You do not need to announce this. It will show by itself; it should be written on your face. Your voice should immediately sound that way, and it should immediately be visible in your eyes, just as a loved person instantly recognizes everything in a lover’s look. A straightforward and good person should simply be like a strong smell: anyone nearby notices it as soon as he comes close, whether he wants to or not. Deliberately performing simplicity is a concealed weapon. Nothing is more shameful than a wolf pretending friendship. Avoid that above all. A good, straightforward, kind person has these qualities in his eyes, and they are obvious.

16. The ability to live the best possible life is in the soul, if a person treats indifferent things as indifferent. He will do this if he examines each thing both in its separate parts and as a whole, and remembers that none of these things gives us a judgment about itself or comes at us. The things themselves stay still. We are the ones who produce judgments about them and, so to speak, write those judgments inside ourselves. We do not have to write them; and if one gets in without our noticing, we can erase it immediately. Remember that you will need to keep up this attention for only a short time, and then life will end. Besides, what is so difficult about these things? If they are in accord with nature, welcome them, and they will be easy for you. If they are contrary to nature, look for what accords with your own nature and pursue it, even if it wins no approval. Everyone is allowed to seek his own good.

17. Where each thing came from, what materials it is made from, what it changes into, what it will be after it changes, and how it will suffer no harm.

18. First, consider how I am related to them. We were born for one another, and from another point of view I was born to lead them, as a ram leads a flock or a bull a herd. But start from the highest premise: if reality is not atoms, then it is Nature governing the universe. If so, lower things exist for the sake of higher things, and higher things exist for one another.

Second, consider what they are like at the dinner table, in bed, and everywhere else. Above all, consider how the beliefs they hold force them to act, and how much arrogance they bring even to those actions.

Third, if what they do is right, you should not be annoyed. If it is not right, they clearly act unwillingly and without understanding. Every soul is unwillingly deprived of truth, just as it is unwillingly deprived of the ability to treat each person as he deserves. That is why people are upset when they hear themselves called unjust, ungrateful, greedy, or generally guilty of doing wrong to their neighbors.

Fourth, you also do many things wrong and are the same kind of person. Even if you avoid some wrong actions, you still have a character capable of them, although cowardice, concern for what people think, or some similar fault may keep you from committing the same wrongs.

Fifth, you do not even know for certain that they are doing wrong. Many things are done as part of a larger plan. In general, you must learn a great deal before you can make a reliable judgment about someone else’s action.

Sixth, when you are extremely angry or distressed, remember that human life lasts only an instant, and before long all of us will be laid out dead.

Seventh, their actions do not trouble us, because those actions are in their own ruling minds. Our judgments trouble us. So remove your judgment that the act is something terrible—choose to let it go—and your anger disappears. How can you remove it? By realizing that it brings no shame on you. If moral disgrace is not the only evil, then you will inevitably have to do many wrongs yourself and become a robber or any other kind of criminal.

Eighth, the anger and grief we feel over such things cause far more pain than the things we are angry and grieved about.

Ninth, kindness cannot be defeated, if it is sincere and not a smirk or an act. What can even the most offensive person do to you if you keep treating him kindly and, when the opportunity comes, advise him gently and calmly correct him at the very time he is trying to harm you? “No, child. We were made for something else. I will not be harmed; you are harming yourself, child.” Show him tactfully and from a broad perspective that this is true, and that not even bees behave this way, nor do any animals naturally meant to live together. But do not do this sarcastically or reproachfully. Do it with affection and without resentment in your soul, not as though you were giving a lecture or trying to impress a bystander, but as if you were speaking to him alone, even if other people are standing nearby.

Remember these nine points as gifts from the Muses, and while you are still alive, begin at last to be a human being. But you must avoid flattering people just as carefully as you avoid getting angry with them. Both responses reject fellowship and cause harm. When you are angry, keep this thought at hand: being furious is not manly. Gentleness and calm are more human and therefore more masculine. The gentle person, not the angry and dissatisfied one, has strength, toughness, and courage. The closer gentleness is to freedom from passion, the closer it is to power. Grief is a weakness, and so is anger: both the grieving and the angry have been wounded and have given in.

If you wish, take a tenth gift from the Leader of the Muses: it is insane to expect bad people not to do wrong, since that demands the impossible. But to allow them to wrong other people while expecting them not to wrong you is callous and tyrannical.

19. There are four movements of the ruling mind that you must watch for constantly and erase whenever you detect them. In each case, tell yourself: “This impression is unnecessary”; “This breaks apart our fellowship”; “What you are about to say does not come from your own mind.” Consider it utterly wrong to say something that does not come from yourself. The fourth movement, for which you reproach yourself, occurs when the more divine part within you is defeated and submits to the lower, mortal part—the body and its crude pleasures.

20. Everything in you made of air and fire, though naturally inclined to rise, obeys the order of the universe and is kept here in the body. And everything in you made of earth and water, though naturally inclined to sink, has been lifted up and remains in a position that is not natural to it. In this way the elements obey the universe: once put in place, they stay bound there by force until the universe gives the signal that allows them to separate again.

So is it not terrible that your reasoning part alone should disobey and be angry at the place assigned to it? Nothing unnatural is required of it, but only what suits its own nature. Yet it refuses and moves in the opposite direction. For every movement toward injustice, lack of self-control, anger, sorrow, or fear is simply a departure from nature. And whenever the ruling mind is displeased with something that happens, it too abandons its proper place. It was made for holiness and respect for the divine just as much as for justice. These qualities are also forms of living well with others; in fact, they come before acts of justice.

21. “Anyone who does not always have the same purpose in life cannot remain the same person through the whole of life.” But that statement is not enough unless you add what this purpose should be. People do not agree in their judgment about everything that most people regard as good; they agree only about certain kinds of good, that is, goods shared by all. In the same way, the purpose one adopts must be social and concerned with the community. A person who directs all his own impulses toward this purpose will make all his actions consistent and will therefore always remain the same.

22. Remember the country mouse and the house mouse, and the house mouse’s panic and running about.

23. Socrates called popular beliefs “Lamias,” things used to frighten children.

24. At public events, the Spartans gave visitors seats in the shade and sat wherever they happened to find a place.

25. Socrates explained why he would not visit Perdiccas: “So that I do not die the worst kind of death,” meaning that he might be treated well and be unable to repay the favor.

26. The Epicurean writings contained this instruction: keep reminding yourself of someone from earlier times who lived virtuously.

27. The Pythagoreans taught that we should look at the sky at daybreak, so that we remember the heavenly bodies that always perform their task in the same course and the same way, and remember their order, purity, and openness. Nothing covers a star.

28. Remember how Socrates looked wearing only a sheepskin after Xanthippe took his cloak and went out, and what he said to his friends when they saw him dressed that way, felt embarrassed, and withdrew.

29. In learning to write and read, you do not become a teacher before you have been taught. This is even more true of life.

30. You were born a slave; you have no part in rational speech.

31. And my heart laughed with joy.

32. They will criticize virtue and speak harshly of it.

33. It is madness to look for a fig in winter. The same is true of someone who looks for his child when the child is no longer given to him.

34. Epictetus said that when you kiss your child, you should tell yourself: “Perhaps tomorrow he will die.”

“That is an ominous thing to say.”

“There is nothing ominous,” he replied, “about referring to a natural event. Otherwise it would also be ominous to say that the grain will be harvested.”

35. An unripe grape, a ripe bunch, a raisin: each is a change, not into nonexistence, but into something that does not exist now.

36. No one can steal your faculty of choice. The saying is Epictetus’.

37. He said: “We need to develop skill in deciding what to accept as true. Where our impulses are concerned, we must stay attentive, so that they include a reservation, benefit others, and match what each situation deserves. We must completely avoid desire, and feel aversion toward nothing outside our control.”

38. He said: “What is at stake is not something trivial, but whether or not we are insane.”

39. Socrates said:

“What do you want—to have rational souls or irrational ones?”

“Rational ones.”

“What kind of rational souls—healthy or defective?”

“Healthy ones.”

“Then why are you not looking for them?”

“Because we already have them.”

“Then why do you fight and disagree with one another?”

1. The properties of the Rational Soul are these: it sees itself, dissects itself, moulds itself to its own will, itself reaps its own fruits —whereas the fruits of the vegetable kingdom and the corresponding produce of animals are reaped by others,—it wins to its own goal wherever the bounds of life be set. In dancing and acting and such-like arts, if any break oceurs, the whole action is rendered imperfect; but the rational soul in every part and wheresoever taken shews the work set before it fulfilled and all-sufficient for itself, so that it can say: I have to the full what is my own.

2. Thou wilt think but meanly of charming songs and dances and the pancratium, if thou analyze the melodious utterance into its several notes and in the case of each ask thyself: Has this the mastery over me? For thou wilt recoil from such a confession. So too with the dance, if thou do the like for each movement and posture. The same holds good of the pancratium. In fine, virtue and its sphere of action excepted, remember to turn to the component parts, and by analyzing them come to despise them. Bring the same practice to bear on the whole of life also.

3. What a soul is that which is ready to be released from the body at any requisite moment, and be quenched or dissipated or hold together! But the readiness must spring from a man's inner judgment, and not be the result of mere opposition [as is the case with the Christians]. It must be associated with deliberation and dignity and, if others too are to be convinced, with nothing like stage-heroics.

4. Have I done some social act? Well, I am amply rewarded. Keep this truth ever ready to turn to, and in no wise slacken thine efforts.

5. What is thy vocation? To be a good man. But how be successful in this save by assured conceptions on the one hand of the Universal Nature and on the other of the special constitution of man?

6. Originally tragedies were brought on to remind us of real events, and that such things naturally occur, and that on life's greater stage you must not be vexed at things, which on the stage you find so attractive. For it is seen that these things must be gone through, and they too have to endure them, who cry Ah, Kithaeron! Aye, and the dramatic writers contain some serviceable sayings. For example this more especially:

7. How clearly is it borne in on thee that there is no other state of life so fitted to call for the exercise of Philosophy as this in which thou now findest thyself.

8. A branch cut off from its neighbour branch cannot but be cut off from the whole plant. In the very same way a man severed from one man has fallen away from the fellowship of all men. Now a branch is cut off by others, but a man separates himself from his neighbour by his own agency in hating him or turning his back upon him; and is unaware that he has thereby sundered himself from the whole civic community. But mark the gift of Zeus who established the law of fellowship. For it is in our power to grow again to the neighbour branch, and again become perfective of the whole. But such a schism constantly repeated makes it difficult for the seceding part to unite again and resume its former condition. And in general the branch that from the first has shared in the growth of the tree and lived with its life is not like that which has been cut off and afterwards grafted on to it, as the gardeners are apt to tell you. Be of one bush, but not of one mind.

9. As those who withstand thy progress along the path of right reason will never be able to turn thee aside from sound action, so let them not wrest thee from a kindly attitude towards them; but keep a watch over thyself in both directions alike, not only in steadfastness of judgment and action but also in gentleness towards those who endeavour to stand in thy path or be in some other way a thorn in thy side. For in fact it is a sign of weakness to be wroth with them, no less than to shrink from action and be terrified into surrender. For they that do the one or the other are alike deserters of their post, the one as a coward, the other as estranged from a natural kinsman and friend.

10. ' Nature in no case cometh short of art.' For indeed the arts are copiers of various natures. If this be so, the most consummate and comprehensive Nature of all cannot be outdone by the inventive skill of art. And in every art the lower things are done for the sake of the higher; and this must hold good of the Universal Nature also. Aye and thence is the origin of Justice, and in justice all the other virtues have their root, since justice will not be maintained if we either put a value on things indifferent, or are easily duped and prone to slip and prone to change.

11. If therefore the things, the following after and eschewing of which disturb thee, come not to thee, but thou in a manner dost thyself seek them out, at all events keep thy judgment at rest about them and they will remain quiescent, and thou shalt not be seen following after or eschewing them.

12. The soul is 'a sphere truly shaped,' when it neither projects itself towards anything outside nor shrinks together inwardly, neither expands nor contracts, but irradiates a light whereby it sees the reality of all things and the reality that is in itself.

13. What if a man think scorn of me? That will be his affair. But it will be mine not to be found doing or saying anything worthy of scorn. But what if he hate me? That will be his affair. But I will be kindly and goodnatured to everyone, and ready to shew even my enemy where he has seen amiss, not by way of rebuke nor with a parade of forbearance, but genuinely and chivalrously like the famous Phocion, unless indeed he was speaking ironically. For such should be the inner springs of a man's heart that the Gods see him not wrathfully disposed at any thing or counting it a hardship. What evil can happen to thee if thou thyself now doest what is congenial to thy nature, and welcomest what the Universal Nature now deems well-timed, thou who art a man intensely eager that what is for the common interest should by one means or another be brought about?

14. Thinking scorn of one another, they yet fawn on one another, and eager to outdo their rivals they grovel one to another.

15. How rotten at the core is he, how counterfeit, who proclaims aloud: I have elected to deal straightforwardly with thee! Man, what art thou at? There is no need to give this out. The fact will instantly declare itself. It ought to be written on the fore head. There is a ring in the voice that betrays it at once, it flashes out at once from the eyes, just as the loved one can read at a glance every secret in his lover's looks. The simple and good man should in fact be like a man who has a strong smell about him, so that, as soon as ever he comes near, his neighbour is, will-he nill-he, aware of it. A calculated simplicity is a stiletto. There is nothing more hateful than the friendship of the wolf for the lamb. Eschew that above all things. The good man, the kindly, the genuine, betrays these characteristics in his eyes and there is no hiding it.

16. Vested in the soul is the power of living ever the noblest of lives, let a man but be indifferent towards things indifferent. And he will be indifferent, if he examine every one of these things both in its component parts and as a whole, and bear in mind that none of them is the cause in us of any opinion about itself, nor obtrudes itself on us. They remain quiescent, and it is we who father these judgments about them and as it were inscribe them on our minds, though it lies with us not to inscribe them and, if they chance to steal in undetected, to erase them at once. Bear in mind too that we shall have but a little while to attend to such things and presently life will be at an end. But why complain of the perversity of things? If they are as Nature wills, delight in them and let them be no hardship to thee. If they contravene Nature, seek then what is in accord with thy nature and speed towards that, even though it be unpopular. For it is pardonable for every man to seek his own good.

17. Think whence each thing has come, of what it is built up, into what it changes, what it will be when changed; and that it cannot take any harm.

18. Firstly: Consider thy relation to mankind and that we came into the world for the sake of one another; and taking another point of view, that I have come into it to be set over men, as a ram over a flock or a bull over a herd. Start at the beginning from this premiss: If not atoms, then an all-controlling Nature. If the latter, then the lower are for the sake of the higher and the higher for one another.

19. Against four perversions of the ruling Reason thou shouldest above all keep unceasing watch, and, once detected, wholly abjure them, saying in each case to thyself: This thought is not necessary; this is destructive of human fellowship; this could be no genuine utterance from the heart.—And not to speak from the heart, what is it but a contradiction in terms?—The fourth case is that of self-reproach, for that is an admission that the divine part of thee has been worsted by and acknowledges its inferiority to the body, the baser and mortal partner, and to its gross notions.

20. Thy soul and all the fiery part that is blended with thee, though by Nature ascensive, yet in submission to the system of the Universe are held fast here in thy compound personality. And the entire earthy part too in thee and the humid, although naturally descensive, are yet upraised and take up a station not their natural one. Thus indeed, we find the elements also in subjection to the Whole and, when set anywhere, remaining there under constraint until the signal sound for their release again therefrom.

21. He who has not ever in view one and the same goal of life cannot be throughout his life one and the same. Nor does that which is stated suffice, there needs to be added what that goal should be. For just as opinion as to all the things that in one way or another are held by the mass of men to be good is not uniform, but only as to certain things, such, that is, as affect the common weal, so must we set before ourselves as our goal the common and civic weal. For he who directs all his individual impulses towards this goal will render his actions homogeneous and thereby be ever consistent with himself.

22. Do not forget the story of the town mouse and the country mouse, and the excitement and trepidation of the latter.

23. Socrates used to nickname the opinions of the multitude Ghouls, bogies to terrify children.

24. The Spartans at their spectacles assigned to strangers seats in the shade, but themselves took their chance of seats anywhere.

25. Socrates refused the invitation of Perdiccas to his court, That I come not, said he, to a dishonoured grave, meaning, that I be not treated with generosity and have no power to return it.

26. In the writings of the Ephesians was laid down the advice to have constantly in remembrance some one of the ancients who lived virtuously.

27. Look, said the Pythagoreans, at the sky in the morning, that we may have in remembrance those hosts of heaven that ever follow the same course and accomplish their work in the same way, and their orderly system, and their purity, and their nakedness; for there is no veil before a star.

28. Think of Socrates with the sheepskin wrapped round him, when Xanthippe had gone off with his coat, and what he said to his friends when they drew back in their embarrassment at seeing him thus accoutred.

29. In reading and writing thou must learn first to follow instruction before thou canst give it. Much more is this true of life.

30. ' Tis not for thee, a slave, to reason why.

31..... and within me my heart laughed.

32. Virtue they will upbraid and speak harsh words in her hearing.

33. Only a madman will look for figs in winter. No better is he who looks for a child when he may no longer have one.

34. A man while fondly kissing his child, says Epictetus, should whisper in his heart: ' To-morrow peradventure thou wilt die.' Ill-omened words these! Nay, said he, nothing is ill-omened that signifies a natural process. Or it is ill-omened also to talk of ears of corn being reaped.

35. The grape unripe, mellow, dried-in every stage we have a change, not into non-existence, but into the not now existent.

36. Hear Epictetus: no one can rob us of our free choice.

37. We must, says he, hit upon the true science of assent and in the sphere of our impulses pay good heed that they be subject to proper reservations, that they have in view our neighbour's welfare; that they are proportionate to worth. And we must abstain wholly from inordinate desire and shew avoidance in none of the things that are not in our control.

38. It is no casual matter, then, said he, that is at stake, but whether we are to be sane or no.

39. Socrates was wont to say: What would ye have? The souls of reasoning or unreasoning creatures? Of reasoning creatures. Of what kind of reasoning creatures? Sound or vicious? Sound. Why then not make a shift to get them? Because we have them already. Why then fight and wrangle?