BOOK 4 -30

One philosopher has no shirt, one has no book. Here is another half-naked: 'I have no bread', he says, 'but I am faithful to Reason.' But I, for my part, have all the food of learning, and yet I am not faithful.

BOOK 4 -29

If one who does not recognize the contents of the universe is a stranger in it, no less a stranger is the one who fails to recognize what happens on it. He is a fugitive if he runs away from social principle; blind, if he shuts the eye of the mind; a beggar, if he depends on others and does not possess within him all he needs for life; a tumor on the universe, if he stands aside and separates himself from the principle of our common nature in dissatisfaction with his lot (for it is nature which brings this about, just as it brought you about too); a social splinter, if he splits his own soul away from the soul of all rational beings, which is a unity.

BOOK 4 -28

A black character, an effeminate, unbending character, the character of a brute or dumb animal: infantile, stupid, fraudulent, coarse,  mercenary, despotic.

BOOK 4 -27

Either an ordered universe, or a stew of mixed ingredients, yet still coherent order. otherwise how could a sort of private order subsist within you, if there is disorder in the Whole? Especially given that all things, distinct as they are, nevertheless permeate and respond to each other.

BOOK 4 -26

You have seen that: now look at this. do not trouble yourself, keep yourself simple. Someone does you wrong? He does wrong to himself. Has something happened to you? Fine. All that has happens has been fated by the Who;e from the beginning and spun for you own destiny. In sum, life is short: make your gain from the present moment with right reason and justice. keep sober and relaxed.

BOOK 4 -25

Try out too how the life of the good man goes for you - the man content with his dispensation from the Whole, and satisfied in his own just action and kind disposition.

BOOK 4 -24

'If you want to be happy' says Democritus, 'do little.' May it not be better to do what is necessary, what the reason of a naturally social being demands, and the way reason demands it done? This brings the happiness both of right action and of little action. Most of what we say and do is unnecessary: remove the superfluity, and you will have more time and less bother. So in every case one should prompt oneself: 'Is this, or is it not, something necessary?' And the removal of the unnecessary should apply not only to actions but to thoughts also: then no redundant actions either will follow.

BOOK 4 -23

Universe, your harmony is my harmony: nothing in your good time is too early or too late for me. Nature, all that you your seasons bring is fruit to me: all comes from you, exists in you, returns to you. The poet says, 'Dear city of Cecrops': will you not say "Dear city of Zeus'?

BOOK 4 -22

No wandering. In every impulse, give what is right: in every thought, stick to what is certain.

BOOK 4 -21 -2

We should consider, though, not only the multitudes of bodies thus buried, but also the number of animals eaten every day by us and other creatures - a huge quantity consumed and in a sense buried in the bodies of those who feed on them. And yet there is room for them because they are reduced to blood and changed into the elements of air and fire.

How to investigate the truth of this? By distinguishing the material and the causal.

BOOK 4 -20

You may ask how, if souls live on, the air can accommodate them all from the beginning of time. Well, how does the earth accommodate all those bodies buried in it over the same eternity? Just as here on earth, once bodies have kept their residence for whatever time, their change and decomposition makes room for other bodies, so it is with souls migrated to the air. They continue for a time, then change, dissolve, and take fire as they are assumed into the generative principle of the Whole: in this way they make room for successive residents. Such would be one's answer on the assumption that souls do live on.

BOOK 4 -20

Everything in any way beautiful has its beauty of itself, inherent and self-sufficient: praise is no part of it. At any rate, praise does not make anything better or worse. This applies even to the popular conception of beauty, as in material things or works of art. So does the truly beautiful need anything beyond itself? No more than law , no more than truth, no more than kindness or integrity. Which of these things derives its beauty from praise, or withers under criticism? Does an emerald lose its quality if it is not praised? And what of gold, ivory, purple, a lyre, a dagger, a flower a bush?

BOOK 4 -19

One who is all in a flutter over his subsequent fame fails to imagine that those who remember him will very soon be dead - and he too. Then the same will be true of of all successors, until the whole memory of him will be extinguished in a sequence of lamps lit and snuffed out. But suppose immortality in those who will remember you, and everlasting memory, even so, what is that to you? And I do not simply mean that this is nothing to the dead, but to the living also what is the point of praise, other than for some practical aspect of management? As it is, you are losing the opportunity of that gift of nature which does not depend on another's word.

BOOK 4 -18

What ease of mind you gain from not looking at what your neighbor has said or done or thought, but only at your own actions, to make them just, reverential, imbued with good! So do not glance at the black characters either side, but run right on  to the line: straight, not straggly

BOOK 4 -17

No, you do not have thousands of years to live. Urgency is on you. While you live, while you can, become good.

BOOK 4 -16

Within ten days you will be regarded as a god by those very people who now see you as a beast or baboon - if you return to your principles and worship of Reason.

BOOK 4 -15

Many grains of incense on the same alter. One falls to ash first, another later: no difference.

BOOK 4 -14

You have subsisted as a part of the Whole. You will vanish into that which gave you birth: or rather you will be changed, taken up into the generative principle of the universe.

BOOK 4 -13

'Do you possess reason?' 'I do.' 'Why not use it then? With reason doing its job, what else do you want?'

BOOK 4 -12

Always have these two principles in readiness. First, to do only what the reason inherent in kingly and judicial power prescribes for the benefit of mankind. Second, to change your ground, if in fact there is someone to correct and guide you away from some notion. But this transference must always spring from a conviction of justice or the common good: and your preferred course must be likewise, not simply for apparent pleasure or popularity.

BOOK 4 -11

When someone does you wrong, do not judge things as he interprets them or would like you to interpret them. Just see them as they are. in plain truth.

BOOK 4 -10

'All's right that happens in the world.' Examine this saying carefully, and you will find it true. I do not mean 'right' simply in the context of cause and effect, but in the sense of 'just' - as is some adjudicator were assigning dues. So keep on observing this, as you have started, and in all that you do combine doing it with being a good man, in the specific conception of 'good man'. Preserve this in every sphere of action.

BOOK 4 -9

The nature of the beneficial was bound to act thus.

BOOK 4 -8

What does not make a human being worse in himself cannot make his life worse either: it cannot harm him from outside or inside.

BOOK 4 -7

Remove the judgement, and you have removed the thought 'I am hurt': remove the the thought 'I am hurt', and the hurt itself is removed.

BOOK 4 -6

With such people such an outcome is both natural and inevitable - if you wish it otherwise you are hoping that figs will no longer produce their rennet. In any case remember that in a very brief time both you and he will be dead, and shortly after not even your names will be left.

BOOK 4 -5

Death just like birth, is a mystery of nature: first a combination, then a dissolution, of the same elements. Certainly no cause for shame: because nothing out of the ordinary for an intelligent being or contrary to the principle of his constitution.

BOOK 4 -4-4

From there, then, this common city, we take our very mind, our reason, our law - from where else? Just as the earthly part of me has been derived from some earth, the watery from the next element, the air of my breath from some other source, the hot and fiery from its origin (for nothing comes from nothing, nor returns to nothing) - so the mind also has its source.

BOOK 4 -4

If mind is common to us all, then we have reason also in common - that which makes us rational beings. If so, then common too is the reason which dictates what we should or should not do. If so, then law too is common to us all. If so, we share in constitution. if so, the universe is a kind of community. In what else could one say that the whole human race shares a common constitution?

BOOK 4 -3-4

Finally, then, remember this retreat into your own little territory within yourself. Above all, no agonies, no tensions. Be your own master, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal  creature. And here are two of the most immediately useful thoughts you will dip into. First that things cannot touch the mind: they are external and inert; anxieties can only come from your internal judgement. Second, that all these things that you see will change almost as you look at them, and then will be no more. Constantly bring to mind all that you have already seen changed. The universe is change: life is judgement.

BOOK 4 -3-3

Well then, will a little fame distract you? Look at the speed of universal oblivion, the gulf of immeasurable time both before and after, the vacuity of applause, the indiscriminate fickleness of apparent supporters, the tiny room in which all this is confined. The whole earth is a mere point in space: what a minute cranny within this is your own habitation, and how many and what sort will sing your praises here!

BOOK 4 - 3-2

And what is it you will resent? Human wickedness? Recall the conclusion that rational creatures are born for each other's sake, that tolerance is a part of justice, that wrongdoing is not deliberate. Consider the number of people who spent their lives in enmity, suspicion, hatred , outright war, and were then laid out for burial or reduced to ashes. Stop, then. or will you fret at your allocation from the Whole? Revisit the alternatives - providence or atoms - and the many indications that the universe is a kind of community. But will matters of the flesh still have their hold on you. Consider that the mind, once it has abstracted itself and come to know its own defining power, has no contact with the movement of the bodily spirit, be that smooth or troubled: and finally remember all that you have heard and agreed about pain and pleasure.

BOOK 4 -3

Men seek retreats for themselves - in the country, by the sea, in the hills, - and you yourself are particularly prone to this yearning. But all this is quite unphilosophic, when it is open to you, at any time you want, to retreat into yourself. No retreat offers someone more quiet and relaxation than that into his own mind, especially if he can dip into thoughts there which put him at immediate and complete ease: I simply mean a well-ordered life. So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself. The doctrines you will visit there should be few and fundamental, sufficient at one meeting to wash away all your pain and send you back free of resentment at what you must rejoin.

BOOK 4 -2

No action should be undertaken without aim, or other than in conformity with a principal affirming the art of life.

BOOK 4 -1

Wherever it is in agreement with nature, the ruling power within us takes a flexible approach to circumstances, always adapting  itself easily to both practicality and the given event. It has no favored material for its work, but sets out on its objects in a conditional way, turning any obstacle into material for its own use. It is like a fire mastering whatever falls into it. A small flame would extinguished, but a bright fire rapidly claims as its own all that is heaped on it, devours it all, and leaps up yet higher in consequence.

BOOK 3 16-2

And if all people mistrust him, for living a simple, decent life, and cheerful life, he has  no quarrel with any of them, and no diversion from the road which leads to the final goal of his life: to this he must come pure, at peace, ready to depart, in unforced harmony with his fate.

BOOK 3 -16

Body, soul, mind. To the body belong sense perceptions, to the soul impulses, to the mind judgements. The receipt of sense impressions is shared with cattle; response to the puppet-strings of impulse is shared with wild beasts, with catamites, with a Phalaris or a Nero; having the mind as guide to what appears appropriate action is shared with those who do not believe in the gods, those who betray their country, those who get up to anything behind closed doors.

So if all else is held in common with the categories mentioned above, it follows that the defining characteristic of the good person is to love and embrace whatever happens to him along within his breast, or trouble it with a welter of confused impressions, but to preserve its constant favor, in proper allegiance to god, saying only what is true, doing only what is just.

BOOK 3 -15

They do not know all the meanings of theft, of sowing, of buying, of keeping at rest, of seeing what needs to be done - this is not for the eye, but for a different sort of vision.

BOOK 3 -14

No more wandering. You are not likely to read your own jottings, your histories of the ancient Greeks and Romans, your extracts from their literature laid up for your old age. Hurry then to the end, abandon vain hopes, rescue yourself, if you have any care for yourself, while the opportunity is still there.

BOOK 3 -13

Just as doctors always have their instruments and knives at hand for any emergency treatment, so you should have your doctrines ready for the recognition of the divine and the human, and the performance of every action, even the smallest, in consciousness of the bond which unities the two. No action in the human context will succeed without reference to the divine nor vice-versa. 

BOOK 3 -12

If you set yourself to your present task along the path of true reason, with all determination, vigor, and good will: if you admit no distractions, but keep your own divinity pure and standing strong, as if you had to surrender it right now, if you grapple this to you, expecting nothing, shirking nothing, but self-content with each present action taken in accordance with nature and a heroic truthfulness in all that you say and mean - then you will lead a good life. And nobody is able to stop you.

BOOK 3 -11-3

Ask then, what is this which is now making its impression on me? What is it composed of? How long in the nature of things will it last?  What virtue is needed to meet it - gentleness, for example, or courage, truthfulness, loyalty, simplicity, self-sufficiency, and so on? So in each case we must say: This has come from god; this is due to a juncture of fate, the mesh of destiny, or some similar coincidence of chance; and this is from my fellow man, my kinsman and colleague, though one who does not know what accords with his own nature. But I do know: and so I treat him kindly and fairly, following the natural law of our fellowship, but at the same time I aim to give him his proper desert in matters which are morally natural.

BOOK 3 -11-2

Nothing is so conductive to greatness of mind as the ability to subject each element of our existence in life to methodical and truthful examination, always at the same time using this scrutiny as a means to reflect on the nature of the universe, the contribution any given action or event makes to that nature, the value this has for the Whole, and the value it has for man - and man is an inhabitant of this highest of City, of which all other cities are mere households.

Book 3 -11

One addition to the precepts already mentioned. Always make a definition or sketch of what presents itself to your mind, so you can see it stripped bare to its essential nature and identify it clearly, in whole and in all its parts, and can tell yourself its proper name and the names of those elements of which it is compounded and into which it will be dissolved.

BOOK 3 -10

So discard all else and secure these few things only.  Remind yourself too that each of us lives only in the present moment, a mere fragment of time: the rest is life past or uncertain future. Sure life is a small thing, and the small cranny of the earth in which we live it: small too, even the longest fame thereafter which is itself subject to a succession of little men who will quickly die, and have no knowledge even of themselves, let alone of those long dead.

Book 3 -9

Revere your power of judgement. All rests on this to make sure that your directing mind no longer entertains any judgement which fails to agree with nature or the constitution of rational being. And this state guarantees deliberate thought, affinity with other men, and obedience to the gods.

BOOK 3 -8

In the mind of one who is chastened and cleansed you will find no suppuration, no simmering ulcer, no sore festering under the skin. Fate does not catch him with his life unfulfilled, as one might speak of an actor leaving the stage before his part is finished and the play is over. Moreover you will find nothing servile or pretentious, no dependance or alienation, nothing to answer for, no lurking fault.

BOOK 3 -7

Never regard as a benefit to yourself anything which will force you at some point to break your faith, to leave integrity behind, to hate, suspect, or curse another, to dissemble, to covet anything needing secrecy of walls and drapes. A man who has put first his mind and divinity, and worships the supremacy of the god within him, makes no drama of his life, no handwringing, no craving for solitude or crowds: most of all: his will be a life of neither pursuit not avoidance, and it is of no remote concern to him whether he will retain the bodily envelopment of his soul for longer or shorter time. Even if release must come here and now, he will depart as easily as he would perform any other act that admits of integrity and decency. Throughout all his life his one precaution is that his mind should not shift to a state without affinity to a rational and social being.

BOOK 3 -6-3

Because it is not right that the rational and social good should be rivaled by anything of a different order, for example the praise of the many, or power, or wealth, or the enjoyment of pleasure. All these things may suit for a while, but they can suddenly take control and carry you away. So you, I repeat, must simply and freely choose the better and hold to it. 'But better is what benefits.' If to your benefit as a rational being, adopt it, but if simply to your benefit as an animal, reject it, and stick to your judgment without fanfare. Only make sure that your scrutiny is sound.

BOOK 3 -6

If you discover in human life something better than justice, truth, self-control, courage - in short, something better than the self-sufficiency of your own mind which keeps you acting in accord with true reason and accepts your inheritance of fate in all outside your choice: if as I say, you can see something better than this, then turn it with all your heart and enjoy this prime good you have found. But if nothing is shown to be better than the very god that is seated in you, which has brought all your own impulses under its control, which scrutinizes your thoughts, which has withdrawn itself, as Socrates used to say, from all inducements of the senses, which has subordinated itself to the gods and takes care of men - if you find all else by comparison with this small and paltry, - then give no room to anything else: once turned and inclined to any alternative, you will struggle thereafter to restore the primacy of that good which is yours and yours alone.