BOOK 11 - 5

What is your profession? Being a good man. But this can only come about through philosophic concepts - concepts of the nature of the Whole, and concepts of the specific constitution of man.

BOOK 11 - 4

Have I done something for the common good? Then I too have benefited. Have this thought always ready to hand: And no stopping.

BOOK 11 -3

               Ian Fairweather

What a noble thing is the soul ready for its release from the body, if now must be the time, and prepared for whatever follows - extinction, dispersal, or survival! But this readiness must come from a specific decision: not in a mere revolt, like the Christians, but thoughtful, dignified, and - if others are to believe it - undramatic.

BOOK 11 -2

You will think little of the entertainment of song or dance or all-in wrestling if you deconstruct the melodic line of a song into it individual notes and ask yourself of each of them: 'Is this something that overpowers me?' You will recoil form that admission. So too with a comparable analysis of dance by each movement and each pose, and the same again with wrestling. Generally, then, with the exception of virtue and its workings, remember to go straight to the component parts of anything, and through tag analysis come to despise the thing itself. And the same method should be applied to the whole of life.

BOOK 11 -3-3

Particular qualities too of the rational soul are love of neighbor, truthfulness, integrity, no higher value than itself. This last is a defining quality of law also. There is thus no difference between the true principle of philosophy and the principle of justice.

BOOK 11 -1 -2

Further, the rational soul traverses the whole universe and its surrounding void, explores the shape of it, stretches into the infinity of time, encompasses and comprehends the periodic regeneration of the Whole. It reflects that our successors will see nothing new, just as our predecessors saw nothing more than we do: such is the sameness of things, a man of forty with any understanding whatsoever has in a sense seen all the past and all the future.

BOOK 11 -1

The properties of the rational soul. It looks on itself, it shapes itself, it makes itself however it wishes to be, it gathers for itself the fruit it bears - whereas the fruit of plants and the corresponding produce of animals is gathered by others. It achieves its own end wherever the limit of life is set. Unlike a ballet or a play or suchlike, where any interruption aborts the whole performance, in every scene and whenever it is cut off the rational soul has its own program complete and entirely fulfilled, so it can say: 'I am in possession of my own.'

BOOK 10 -38

Remember that what pulls the strings is that part of us hidden inside: that is the power to act, that is the principle of life, that, one could say, is the man himself. So never give any equal thought to the vessel which contains it or the organs built round it, These are an instrument like an ax, differing only in their attachment to the body. There is no more use in these parts without the weaver, the pen without the writer, the whip without the driver.

BOOK 10 -37

As far as you can, get into the habit of asking yourself in relation to any action taken by another: 'What is his point of reference here?' But begin with yourself: examine yourself first.

BOOK 10 -36 -2

Do not, though, for that reason feel any less warmth for them as you depart this life, but keep true to your own character - friendly, kind, generous. Again, your leaving of them should not be a wrench from life, but rather that easy slipping of the soul from the body's carapace experienced by those dying colleagues, but is now releasing you. My release is like parting from kinsmen, but I do not resist or need to be forced. This too is one of the ways to follow nature.

BOOK 10 -36

No one is so fortunate as not to have standing round his deathbed some people who welcome the fate coming him. Was he the earnest sage? Then maybe there will be someone at his final moment saying to himself: 'We can breathe again now, rid of this schoolmaster. He was not hard on any one of us, but I could feel his silent criticism of us all.' So much for the earnest sage: but in our own case how many other reasons are there for a general wish to be rid of us? You will think of this when you are dying, and your departure will be the easier if you reason to yourself: 'I am leaving the sort of life in which even my colleagues - on whose behalf I have expended so much effort, prayer, and thought - even they want me out of the way, doubtless hoping for some relief from my death.' So why should anyone cling to a longer stay here on earth?

BOOK 10 -35

The healthy eye must look at all there is to be seen, and not say  'I only want pale colors' - this is a symptom of disease. The healthy ear and nose must be ready for all sounds or smells, and the healthy stomach must accept all food in the same way that a mill accepts all it was made to grind. And so the healthy mind too must be ready for all eventualities. The mind which says 'my children must live', or 'there must be popular acclaim for all I do', is the eye demanding pale or the teeth demanding pap.

BOOK 10 -34-2

Your children are no more than 'leaves'. 'Leaves' too these loud voices of loyal praise, these curses from your opponents, this silent blame or mockery: mere 'leaves' likewise those with custody of your future fame. All these 'come round in the season of spring': but then the wind blows them down, and the forest 'puts out others' in their stead. All things are short-lived - this is their common lot - but you pursue likes and dislikes as if all eyes and soon there will be others mourning the man who buries you.

BOOK 10 -34

One bitten by the true doctrines needs only a very short and commonplace reminder to lose all pain and fear - for instance: 

  The wind scatters one year's leaves on the ground..... so it is worth the generations of men.

BOOK 10 -33-4

Otherwise anyone meeting such hindrance would immediately become bad himself. With all other organisms any harm occurring to any of them makes them worse in themselves. But in our case, to put it so, a person actually becomes better and more praiseworthy for the right use of the circumstances he finds meets. Generally, remember that nothing harms the citizen of nature other than what harms the city: and nothing harms the city other than what harms the law. None of our so-called misfortunes harms the law. So what is not harmful to the law does not harm either city or citizen.

BOOK 10 -33-3

Keeping clear in your view this easy facility of reason to carry through all things - like fire rising, a stone falling, a roller on a slope - stop looking for anything more.Any remaining hindrances either come from the corpse which is our body, or - without the judgement and consent of our own reason itself - have no power at all to break or harm.

BOOK 10 -33 -2

Now the roller does not have the gift of following its own movement wherever it will, nor does water or fire, or anything else subject to a nature or life without reason: there are many barriers or impediments in their way. But mind and reason have the power, by their nature and at their will, to move through every obstacle.

BOOK 10 -33

In any given material circumstance what can be done or said to soundest effect? Whatever that is, it is in your power to do it or say it - and make no pretense of 'obstacles in the way' You will never cease moaning until you experience the same pleasure in making appropriately human response to any circumstance you meet or face as the hedonist does in his indulgence - a response, that is, in keeping with man's constitution. Because you should regard as enjoyment any action you can take in accord with your own nature; and you can do that anywhere.

BOOK -32

Let no one have the chance to accuse you, with any truth, of not being sincere or a good man: make sure that anyone taking this view of you is a liar. This is wholly up to you - who is there to prevent you being good and sincere? You must just decide to live no longer if you won't have these qualities. And reason to abandons the man who won't.