Top highlights from Meditations
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
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“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
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“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
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“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
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“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...”
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“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together,but do so with all your heart.”
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“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
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“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
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“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
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“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
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“If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.”
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“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”
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“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.”
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“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
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“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.”
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“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.”
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“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
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“When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you.”
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“How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”
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“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
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“Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is misfortune," but "To bear this worthily is good fortune.”
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“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.”
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“How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”
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“Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil.”
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“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness.”
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“You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.”
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“You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.”
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“What we do now echoes in eternity.”
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“Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.”
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“Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.”
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“Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.”
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“Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.”
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“For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.”
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“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
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“Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.”
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“Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.”
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“A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.”
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“Casting aside other things, hold to the precious few; and besides bear in mind that every man lives only the present, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or is uncertain. Brief is man's life and small the nook of the earth where he lives; brief, too, is the longest posthumous fame, buoyed only by a succession of poor human beings who will very soon die and who know little of themselves, much less of someone who died long ago.”
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“Receive without conceit, release without struggle.”
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“Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.”
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“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.”
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“It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.”
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“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life”
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“Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.”
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“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”
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So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?
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You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you.”
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“If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.”
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“Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.”
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“A person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values.”
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“Humans have come into being for the sake of each other, so either teach them, or learn to bear them.”
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“Though you break your heart, men will go on as before.”
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“Do what you will. Even if you tear yourself apart, most people will continue doing the same things.”
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“If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance.”
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“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.”
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“Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power.”
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“Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?”
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“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.”
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“Regain your senses, call yourself back, and once again wake up. Now that you realize that only dreams were troubling you, view this 'reality' as you view your dreams.”
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“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”
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“Whoever does wrong, wrongs himself; whoever does injustice, does it to himself, making himself evil.”
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“If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now.”
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“The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.”
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“The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts.”
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“Or is it your reputation that's bothering you? But look at how soon we're all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of those applauding hands. The people who praise us; how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region it takes place. The whole earth a point in space - and most of it uninhabited.”
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“Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”
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“Confine yourself to the present.”
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“Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.”
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“No one can lose either the past or the future - how could anyone be deprived of what he does not possess? ... It is only the present moment of which either stands to be deprived: and if this is all he has, he cannot lose what he does not have.”
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“Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.”
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“Misfortune nobly born is good fortune.”
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“Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig.”
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“Take full account of what Excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.”
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“A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.”
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“Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, "Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?" neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility. . . .”
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“Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature.”
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“Do not disturb yourself by picturing your life as a whole; do not assemble in your mind the many and varied troubles which have come to you in the past and will come again in the future, but ask yourself with regard to every present difficulty: 'What is there in this that is unbearable and beyond endurance?' You would be ashamed to confess it! And then remind yourself that it is not the future or what has passed that afflicts you, but always the present, and the power of this is much diminished if you take it in isolation and call your mind to task if it thinks that it cannot stand up to it when taken on its own.”
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“That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.”
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“I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me.
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But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.”
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“When you arise in the moring, think of what a precious privelege it is to be alive-- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love”
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“Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquility; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. Constantly then give to thyself this retreat, and renew thyself; and let thy principles be brief and fundamental, which, as soon as thou shalt recur to them, will be sufficient to cleanse the soul completely, and to send thee back free from all discontent with the things to which thou returnest. For with what art thou discontented? With the badness of men? Recall to thy mind this conclusion, that rational animals exist for one another, and that to endure is a part of justice, and that men do wrong involuntarily; and consider how many already, after mutual enmity, suspicion, hatred, and fighting, have been stretched dead, reduced to ashes; and be quiet at last.- But perhaps thou art dissatisfied with that which is assigned to thee out of the universe.- Recall to thy recollection this alternative; either there is providence or atoms, fortuitous concurrence of things; or remember the arguments by which it has been proved that the world is a kind of political community, and be quiet at last.- But perhaps corporeal things will still fasten upon thee.- Consider then further that the mind mingles not with the breath, whether moving gently or violently, when it has once drawn itself apart and discovered its own power, and think also of all that thou hast heard and assented to about pain and pleasure, and be quiet at last.- But perhaps the desire of the thing called fame will torment thee.- See how soon everything is forgotten, and look at the chaos of infinite time on each side of the present, and the emptiness of applause, and the changeableness and want of judgement in those who pretend to give praise, and the narrowness of the space within which it is circumscribed, and be quiet at last. For the whole earth is a point, and how small a nook in it is this thy dwelling, and how few are there in it, and what kind of people are they who will praise thee.”
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“What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.”
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“When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought would come of it. If you understand that, you'll feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger. Your sense of good and evil may be the same as theirs, or near it, in which case you have to excuse them. Or your sense of good and evil may differ from theirs. In which case they're misguided and deserve your compassion. Is that so hard?”
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“All men are made one for another: either then teach them better or bear with them.”
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“Life is opinion.”
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“Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realise the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.”
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“No man is happy who does not think himself so.”
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“Unhappy am I because this has happened to me.- Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future.”
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“The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.”
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“How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.”
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“All things fade and quickly turn to myth.”
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“In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present - I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?”
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“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?
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So you were born to feel ‘nice’? Instead of doings things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?
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—But we have to sleep sometime…
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Agreed. But nature set a limit on that—as it did on eating and drinking. And you’re over the limit. You’ve had more than enough of that. But not of working. There you’re still below your quota. You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving, the dancer for dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.”
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“Which is recorded of Socrates, that he was able both to abstain from, and to enjoy, those things which many are too weak to abstain from, and cannot enjoy without excess. But to be strong enough both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible soul.”
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“Human life. Duration: momentary. Nature: changeable. Perception: dim. Condition of Body: decaying. Soul: spinning around. Fortune: unpredictable. Lasting Fame: uncertain. Sum Up: The body and its parts are a river, the soul a dream and mist, life is warfare and a journey far from home, lasting reputation is oblivion.”
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“Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just.”
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“In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his sense a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, his fame doubtful. In short, all that is body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapors.”
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“Anger cannot be dishonest.”
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“Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.”
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“Everything - a horse, a vine - is created for some duty... For what task, then, were you yourself created?”
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“It loved to happen.”
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“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; and if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.”
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“Don’t let yourself forget how many doctors have died, furrowing their brows over how many deathbeds. How many astrologers, after pompous forecasts about others’ ends. How many philosophers, after endless disquisitions on death and immortality. How many warriors, after inflicting thousands of casualties themselves. How many tyrants, after abusing the power of life and death atrociously, as if they were themselves immortal.
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And all the ones you know yourself, one after another. One who laid out another for burial, and was buried himself, and then the man who buried him - all in the same short space of time.
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In short, know this: Human lives are brief and trivial. Yesterday a blob of semen; tomorrow embalming fluid, ash.
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To pass through this brief life as nature demands. To give it up without complaint.
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Praising its mother, thanking the tree it grew on.”
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“The time is at hand when you will have forgotten everything; and the time is at hand when all will have forgotten you. Always reflect that soon you will be no one, and nowhere.”
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“A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.”
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“From the philosopher Catulus, never to be dismissive of a friend's accusation, even if it seems unreasonable, but to make every effort to restore the relationship to its normal condition.”
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“Neither worse then or better is a thing made by being praised.”
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“Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground.”
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“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive-to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
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