# Seneca's Letters From a Stoic  ## Metadata - Author: [[Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Richard Mott Gummere (Translator)]] - Full Title: Seneca's Letters From a Stoic - Category: #books ## Highlights - Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day. ([Location 245](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=245)) - It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. ([Location 249](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=249)) - Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough. ([Location 251](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=251)) - Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul. Speak as boldly with him as with yourself. ([Location 262](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=262)) - Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die. For this reason, make life as a whole agreeable to yourself by banishing all worry about it. ([Location 293](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=293)) - No good thing renders its possessor happy, unless his mind is reconciled to the possibility of loss; nothing, however, is lost with less discomfort than that which, when lost, cannot be missed. ([Location 295](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=295)) - Just as the same chain fastens the prisoner and the soldier who guards him, so hope and fear, dissimilar as they are, keep step together; fear follows hope. ([Location 344](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=344)) - am glad to learn in order that I may teach. Nothing will ever please me, no matter how excellent or beneficial, if I must retain the knowledge of it to myself. ([Location 362](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=362)) - No good thing is pleasant to possess, without friends to share it. ([Location 364](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=364)) - You must go to the scene of action, first, because men put more faith in their eyes than in their ears, and second, because the way is long if one follows precepts, but short and helpful, if one follows patterns. ([Location 367](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=367)) - Plato, Aristotle, and the whole throng of sages who were destined to go each his different way, derived more benefit from the character than from the words of Socrates. ([Location 370](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=370)) - It was not the class-room of Epicurus, but living together under the same roof, that made great men of Metrodorus, Hermarchus, and Polyaenus. ([Location 371](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=371)) - “What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.” That was indeed a great benefit; such a person can never be alone. You may be sure that such a man is a friend to all mankind. ([Location 374](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=374)) - To consort with the crowd is harmful; there is no person who does not make some vice attractive to us, or stamp it upon us, or taint us unconsciously therewith. Certainly, the greater the mob with which we mingle, the greater the danger. ([Location 381](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=381)) - I mean that I come home more greedy, more ambitious, more voluptuous, and even more cruel and inhuman, because I have been among human beings. ([Location 384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=384)) - Note: After being influenced , triggered by others - The young character, which cannot hold fast to righteousness, must be rescued from the mob; it is too easy to side with the majority. ([Location 400](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=400)) - Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach. ([Location 407](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=407)) - You may say: “For what purpose did I learn all these things?” But you need not fear that you have wasted your efforts; it was for yourself that you learned them. ([Location 411](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=411)) - Lay these words to heart, Lucilius, that you may scorn the pleasure which comes from the applause of the majority. Many men praise you; but have you any reason for being pleased with yourself, if you are a person whom the many can understand? Your good qualities should face inwards. ([Location 419](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=419)) - Note: Be a person with depth - What Chance has made yours is not really yours. ([Location 461](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=461)) - The good that could be given, can be removed. ([Location 463](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=463)) - But we and they alike hold this idea—that the wise man is self-sufficient. ([Location 476](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=476)) - But while he does not pine for these parts if they are missing, he prefers not to lose them. In this sense the wise man is self-sufficient, that he can do without friends, not that he desires to do without them. When I say “can,” I mean this: he endures the loss of a friend with equanimity. ([Location 480](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=480)) - But he need never lack friends, for it lies in his own control how soon he shall make good a loss. Just as Phidias, if he lose a statue, can straightway carve another, even so our master in the art of making friendships can fill the place of a friend he has lost. ([Location 482](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=482)) - Now there is great pleasure, not only in maintaining old and established friendships, but also in beginning and acquiring new ones. There is the same difference between winning a new friend and having already won him, as there is between the farmer who sows and the farmer who reaps. The philosopher Attalus used to say: “It is more pleasant to make than to keep a friend, as it is more pleasant to the artist to paint than to have finished painting.” When one is busy and absorbed in one’s work, the very absorption affords great delight; but when one has withdrawn one’s hand from the completed masterpiece, the pleasure is not so keen. Henceforth it is the fruits of his art that he enjoys; it was the art itself that he enjoyed while he was painting. In the case of our children, their young manhood yields the more abundant fruits, but their infancy was sweeter. ([Location 486](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=486)) - Note: Making friends for sake of making friends ? - He who regards himself only, and enters upon friendships for this reason, reckons wrongly. ([Location 496](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=496)) - These are the so-called “fair-weather” friendships; one who is chosen for the sake of utility will be satisfactory only so long as he is useful. ([Location 498](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=498)) - The beginning and the end cannot but harmonize. He who begins to be your friend because it pays will also cease because it pays. ([Location 501](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=501)) - The friendship which you portray is a bargain and not a friendship; it regards convenience only, and looks to the results. ([Location 504](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=504)) - One who seeks friendship for favourable occasions, strips it of all its nobility. ([Location 512](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=512)) - The wise man needs hands, eyes, and many things that are necessary for his daily use; but he is in want of nothing. ([Location 519](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=519)) - For want implies a necessity, and nothing is necessary to the wise man. ([Location 519](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=519)) - He craves as many friends as possible, not, however, that he may live happily; for he will live happily even without friends. ([Location 520](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=520)) - If the good seeks any portion of itself from without, it begins to be subject to the play of Fortune. ([Location 522](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=522)) - Natural promptings, and not his own selfish needs, draw him into Friendships. For just as other things have for us an inherent attractiveness, so has friendship. ([Location 528](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=528)) - he deemed nothing that might be taken from him to be a good. ([Location 537](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=537)) - Do you understand now how much easier it is to conquer a whole tribe than to conquer one man? ([Location 539](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=539)) - the Stoic also can carry his goods unimpaired through cities that have been burned to ashes; for he is self-sufficient. ([Location 540](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=540)) - Epicurus himself, the reviler of Stilbo, spoke similar language; put it down to my credit, though I have already wiped out my debt for the present day. He says: “Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the whole world.” ([Location 542](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=542)) - “A man may rule the world and still be unhappy, if he does not feel that he is supremely happy.” ([Location 544](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=544)) - It matters not what one says, but what one feels; also, not how one feels on one particular day, but how one feels at all times. ([Location 549](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=549)) - No thoughtless person ought to be left alone; in such cases he only plans folly, and heaps up future dangers for himself or for others; ([Location 561](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=561)) - “Live among men as if God beheld you; speak with God as if men were listening”? ([Location 575](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=575)) - For by no wisdom can natural weaknesses of the body be removed. That which is implanted and inborn can be toned down by training, but not overcome. ([Location 582](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=582)) - Whatever is assigned to us by the terms of our birth and the blend in our constitutions, will stick with us, no matter how hard or how long the soul may have tried to master itself. ([Location 594](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=594)) - The soul should have someone whom it can respect,—one by whose authority it may make even its inner shrine more hallowed. ([Location 602](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=602)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Happy is the man who can make others better, not merely when he is in their company, but even when he is in their thoughts! ([Location 602](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=602)) - For we must indeed have someone according to whom we may regulate our characters; you can never straighten that which is crooked unless you use a ruler. ([Location 606](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=606)) - Note: A role model - Fruits are most welcome when almost over; youth is most charming at its close; the last drink delights the toper, the glass which souses him and puts the finishing touch on his drunkenness. ([Location 624](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=624)) - Each pleasure reserves to the end the greatest delights which it contains. ([Location 625](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=625)) - Our span of life is divided into parts; it consists of large circles enclosing smaller. ([Location 631](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=631)) - The smallest circle of all is the day; but even a day has its beginning and its ending, its sunrise and its sunset. ([Location 634](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=634)) - Pacuvius, who by long occupancy made Syria his own, used to hold a regular burial sacrifice in his own honour, with wine and the usual funeral feasting, and then would have himself carried from the dining-room to his chamber, while eunuchs applauded and sang in Greek to a musical accompaniment: “He has lived his life, he has lived his life!” Thus Pacuvius had himself carried out to burial every day. ([Location 641](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=641)) - Note: Daily funeral - let us go to our sleep with joy and gladness; let us say: I have lived; the course which Fortune set for me Is finished. And if God is pleased to add another day, we should welcome it with glad hearts. ([Location 644](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=644)) - That man is happiest, and is secure in his own possession of himself, who can await the morrow without apprehension. ([Location 647](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=647)) - equip yourself with maxims ([Location 663](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=663)) - manliness gains much strength by being challenged; ([Location 671](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=671)) - we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. ([Location 673](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=673)) - What I advise you to do is, not to be unhappy before the crisis comes; since it may be that the dangers before which you paled as if they were threatening you, will never come upon you; they certainly have not yet come. ([Location 675](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=675)) - We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow. ([Location 678](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=678)) - Do me the favour, when men surround you and try to talk you into believing that you are unhappy, to consider not what you hear but what you yourself feel, and to take counsel with your feelings and question yourself independently, because you know your own affairs better than anyone else does. ([Location 682](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=682)) - we agree too quickly with what people say. We do not put to the test those things which cause our fear; we do not examine into them; we blench and retreat just like soldiers who are forced to abandon their camp because of a dust-cloud raised by stampeding cattle, or are thrown into a panic by the spreading of some unauthenticated rumour. ([Location 693](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=693)) - How often has the unexpected happened! How often has the expected never come to pass! ([Location 699](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=699)) - Perhaps it will come, perhaps not; in the meantime it is not. So look forward to better things. ([Location 703](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=703)) - Virtue is held too cheap by the man who counts his body too dear. We should cherish the body with the greatest care; but we should also be prepared, when reason, self-respect, and duty demand the sacrifice, to deliver it even to the flames. ([Location 736](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=736)) - Without philosophy the mind is sickly, and the body, too, though it may be very powerful, is strong only as that of a madman or a lunatic is strong. ([Location 803](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=803)) - time is something of which we ought to keep strict account. ([Location 814](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=814)) - The mind must be exercised both day and night, for it is nourished by moderate labour, and this form of exercise need not be hampered by cold or hot weather, or even by old age. ([Location 818](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=818)) - for we are plunged by our blind desires into ventures which will harm us, but certainly will never satisfy us; for if we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been satisfied long ago; nor do we reflect how pleasant it is to demand nothing, how noble it is to be contented and not to be dependent upon Fortune. ([Location 836](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=836)) - You must persevere, must develop new strength by continuous study, until that which is only a good inclination becomes a good settled purpose. ([Location 854](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=854)) - Examine yourself; scrutinize and observe yourself in divers ways; but mark, before all else, whether it is in philosophy or merely in life itself that you have made progress. ([Location 858](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=858)) - She will encourage us to obey God cheerfully, but Fortune defiantly; she will teach us to follow God and endure Chance. ([Location 869](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=869)) - This also is a saying of Epicurus: “If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.” ([Location 876](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=876)) - Natural desires are limited; but those which spring from false opinion can have no stopping-point. ([Location 881](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=881)) - When you are travelling on a road, there must be an end; but when astray, your wanderings are limitless. ([Location 882](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=882)) - Recall your steps, therefore, from idle things, and when you would know whether that which you seek is based upon a natural or upon a misleading desire, consider whether it can stop at any definite point. If you find, after having travelled far, that there is a more distant goal always in view, you may be sure that this condition is contrary to nature. Farewell. ([Location 883](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=883)) - Riches have shut off many a man from the attainment of wisdom; poverty is unburdened and free from care. ([Location 894](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=894)) - you wish to have leisure for your mind, either be a poor man, or resemble a poor man. ([Location 901](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=901)) - Study cannot be helpful unless you take pains to live simply; and living simply is voluntary poverty. ([Location 901](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=901)) - In the first place, you cannot lack them; because nature demands but little, and the wise man suits his needs to nature. ([Location 916](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=916)) - Change the age in which you live, and you have too much. But in every age, what is enough remains the same. ([Location 922](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=922)) - For the fault is not in the wealth, but in the mind itself. That which had made poverty a burden to us, has made riches also a burden. ([Location 926](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=926)) - Just as it matters little whether you lay a sick man on a wooden or on a golden bed, for whithersoever he be moved he will carry his malady with him; so one need not care whether the diseased mind is bestowed upon riches or upon poverty. His malady goes with the man. Farewell. ([Location 927](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=927)) - Note: Therefore first fix the mind - shall give you also a lesson: Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: “Is this the condition that I feared?” It is precisely in times of immunity from care that the soul should toughen itself beforehand for occasions of greater stress, and it is while ([Location 944](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=944)) - Fortune is kind that it should fortify itself against her violence. In days of peace the soldier performs manoeuvres, throws up earthworks with no enemy in sight, and wearies himself by gratuitous toil, in order that he may be equal to unavoidable toil. ([Location 947](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=947)) - If you would not have a man flinch when the crisis comes, train him before it comes. ([Location 948](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=948)) - Endure all this for three or four days at a time, sometimes for more, so that it may be a test of yourself instead of a mere hobby. ([Location 952](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=952)) - let us become intimate with poverty, so that Fortune may not catch us off our guard. ([Location 959](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=959)) - Of course I do not forbid you to possess it, but I would have you reach the point at which you possess it dauntlessly; this can be accomplished only by persuading yourself that you can live happily without it as well as with it, and by regarding riches always as likely to elude you. ([Location 974](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=974)) - Similarly with fire; it does not matter how great is the flame, but what it falls upon. For solid timbers have repelled a very great fire; conversely, dry and easily inflammable stuff nourishes the slightest spark into a conflagration. ([Location 980](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=980)) - Great things cannot be bought for small sums; so reckon up whether it is preferable to leave your own true self, or merely some of your belongings. ([Location 1002](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1002)) - And as long as nothing satisfies you, you yourself cannot satisfy others. ([Location 1012](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1012)) - highest proof of wisdom—that deed and word should be in accord, that a man should be equal to himself under all conditions, and always the same. ([Location 1052](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1052)) - Some men restrict themselves at home, but strut with swelling port before the public; such discordance is a fault, and it indicates a wavering mind which cannot yet keep its balance. ([Location 1057](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1057)) - “What is wisdom? Always desiring the same things, and always refusing the same things.” ([Location 1061](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1061)) - Poverty will keep for you your true and tried friends; ([Location 1068](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1068)) - you will be rid of the men who were not seeking you for yourself, but for something which you have. ([Location 1069](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1069)) - great men have often done: to reserve a few days in which we may prepare ourselves for real poverty by means of fancied poverty. ([Location 1089](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1089)) - It is your own studies that will make you shine and will render you eminent. ([Location 1103](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1103)) - Do you ask what is the foundation of a sound mind? It is, not to find joy in useless things. ([Location 1219](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1219)) - make this your business: learn how to feel joy. ([Location 1222](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1222)) - The very soul must be happy and confident, lifted above every circumstance. ([Location 1226](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1226)) - pleasure, unless it has been kept within bounds, tends to rush headlong into the abyss of sorrow. ([Location 1240](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1240)) - Do you ask me what this real good is, and whence it derives? I will tell you: it comes from a good conscience, from honourable purposes, from right actions, from contempt of the gifts of chance, from an even and calm way of living which treads but one path. ([Location 1241](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1241)) - There are only a few who control themselves and their affairs by a guiding purpose; the rest do not proceed; they are merely swept along, like objects afloat in a river. ([Location 1244](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1244)) - Therefore, we should decide what we wish, and abide by the decision. ([Location 1247](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1247)) - Why, indeed, is it necessary to summon trouble—which must be endured soon enough when it has once arrived, or to anticipate trouble and ruin the present through fear of the future? ([Location 1258](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1258)) - It is indeed foolish to be unhappy now because you may be unhappy at some future time. ([Location 1259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1259)) - Let us think of everything that can happen as something which will happen. ([Location 1314](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1314)) - Note: Think of the worst and accept it? - Say to yourself that our petty bodies are mortal and frail; pain can reach them from other sources than from wrong or the might of the stronger. Our pleasures themselves become torments; banquets bring indigestion, carousals paralysis of the muscles and palsy, sensual habits affect the feet, the hands, and every joint of the body. ([Location 1317](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1317)) - Epicurus upbraids those who crave, as much as those who shrink from, death: “It is absurd,” he says, “to run towards death because you are tired of life, when it is your manner of life that has made you run towards death.” ([Location 1340](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1340)) - And in another passage: “What is so absurd as to seek death, when it is through fear of death that you have robbed your life of peace?” ([Location 1342](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1342)) - Epicurus will oblige me with these words: “Think on death,” or rather, if you prefer the phrase, on “migration to heaven.” ([Location 1420](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1420)) - Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy; ([Location 1438](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1438)) - Socrates made the same remark to one who complained; he said: “Why do you wonder that globe-trotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you? The reason which set you wandering is ever at your heels.” ([Location 1471](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1471)) - You wander hither and yon, to rid yourself of the burden that rests upon you, though it becomes more troublesome by reason of your very restlessness, just as in a ship the cargo when stationary makes no trouble, but when it shifts to this side or that, it causes the vessel to heel more quickly in the direction where it has settled. Anything you do tells against you, and you hurt yourself by your very unrest; for you are shaking up a sick man. ([Location 1477](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1477)) - The person you are matters more than the place to which you go; for that reason we should not make the mind a bondsman to any one place. Live in this belief: “I am not born for any one corner of the universe; this whole world is my country.” ([Location 1482](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1482)) - “Slavery” ([Location 1494](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1494)) - Note: What am i slave to? - “The knowledge of sin is the beginning of salvation.” This saying of Epicurus seems to me to be a noble one. For he who does not know that he has sinned does not desire correction; you must discover yourself in the wrong before you can reform yourself. Some boast of their faults. Do you think that the man has any thought of mending his ways who counts over his vices as if they were virtues? Therefore, as far as possible, prove yourself guilty, hunt up charges against yourself; play the part, first of accuser, then of judge, last of intercessor. At times be harsh with yourself. ([Location 1495](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1495)) - one must not talk to a man unless he is willing to listen. ([Location 1504](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1504)) - “I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know, they do not approve, and what they approve, I do not know.” “Who said this?” you ask, as if you were ignorant whom I am pressing into service; it is Epicurus. ([Location 1536](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1536)) - For who that is pleased by virtue can please the crowd? It takes trickery to win popular approval; and you must needs make yourself like unto them; they will withhold their approval if they do not recognise you as one of themselves. ([Location 1538](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1538)) - The favour of ignoble men can be won only by ignoble means. ([Location 1540](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1540)) - it is just as insane,” he adds, “for a man to fear what will not happen to him, as to fear what he will not feel if it does happen.” ([Location 1567](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1567)) - stands so far beyond all evil that it is beyond all fear of evils. ([Location 1569](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1569)) - Be deaf to those who love you most of all; they pray for bad things with good intentions. ([Location 1623](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1623)) - Make yourself happy through your own efforts; you can do this, if once you comprehend that whatever is blended with virtue is good, and that whatever is joined to vice is bad. ([Location 1633](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1633)) - it is the association of virtue and vice that makes things honourable or base. ([Location 1636](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1636)) - forbid you to be cast down or depressed. ([Location 1639](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1639)) - Look into their wisdom as a whole; study it as a whole. They are working out a plan and weaving together, line upon line, a masterpiece, from which nothing can be taken away without injury to the whole. Examine the separate parts, if you like, provided you examine them as parts of the man himself. ([Location 1709](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1709)) - He should make such maxims and not memorize them. ([Location 1718](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1718)) - But what is your own opinion? How long shall you march under another man’s orders? ([Location 1720](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1720)) - Note: Not just quote what others are saying but incorporate these wisdom into my life and internalize them and speak my own maxim - For this reason I hold that there is nothing of eminence in all such men as these, who never create anything themselves, but always lurk in the shadow of others, playing the rôle of interpreters, never daring to put once into practise what they have been so long in learning. ([Location 1722](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1722)) - Note: Be a producer - But it is one thing to remember, another to know. Remembering is merely safeguarding something entrusted to the memory; knowing, however, means making everything your own; it means not depending upon the copy and not all the time glancing back at the master. ([Location 1724](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1724)) - Consider this fact also. Those who have never attained their mental independence begin, in the first place, by following the leader in cases where everyone has deserted the leader; then, in the second place, they follow him in matters where the truth is still being investigated. However, the truth will never be discovered if we rest contented with discoveries already made. Besides, he who follows another not only discovers nothing but is not even investigating. What then? Shall I not follow in the footsteps of my predecessors? I shall indeed use the old road, but if I find one that makes a shorter cut and is smoother to travel, I shall open the new road. Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized. And there is plenty of it left even for posterity to discover. ([Location 1729](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1729)) - Note: Venture further then predecessor . They are our guide not our masters - Fortune has no jurisdiction over character. ([Location 1796](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1796)) - Let him so regulate his character that in perfect peace he may bring to perfection that spirit within him which feels neither loss nor gain, but remains in the same attitude, no matter how things fall out. A spirit like this, if it is heaped with worldly goods, rises superior to its wealth; if, on the other hand, chance has stripped him of a part of his wealth, or even all, it is not impaired. ([Location 1796](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1796)) - let him learn that which is helpful against all weapons, against every kind of foe—contempt of death; ([Location 1802](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1802)) - Proceed with steady step, and if you would have all things under your control, put yourself under the control of reason; if reason becomes your ruler, you will become ruler over many. ([Location 1833](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1833)) - when the aim is to make a man learn and not merely to make him wish to learn, we must have recourse to the low-toned words of conversation. ([Location 1842](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1842)) - They enter more easily, and stick in the memory; for we do not need many words, but, rather, effective words. ([Location 1843](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1843)) - Words should be scattered like seed; no matter how small the seed may be, if it has once found favourable ground, it unfolds its strength and from an insignificant thing spreads to its greatest growth. ([Location 1844](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1844)) - Reason grows in the same way; it is not large to the outward view, but increases as it does its work. ([Location 1846](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1846)) - No man of exalted gifts is pleased with that which is low and mean; the vision of great achievement summons him and uplifts him. ([Location 1859](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1859)) - happy is the man who has given it this impulse toward better things! ([Location 1861](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1861)) - prefer that which is ordinary rather than that which is too great. ([Location 1863](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1863)) - too rich a soil makes the grain fall flat, branches break down under too heavy a load, excessive productiveness does not bring fruit to ripeness. ([Location 1864](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1864)) - men sink themselves in pleasures, and they cannot do without them when once they have become accustomed to them, and for this reason they are most wretched, because they have reached such a pass that what was once superfluous to them has become indispensable. ([Location 1871](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1871)) - do not approve of this in a philosopher; his speech, like his life, should be composed; and nothing that rushes headlong and is hurried is well ordered. ([Location 1890](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1890)) - is foolish to pray for this when you can acquire it from yourself. ([Location 1939](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1939)) - in man also we should praise that which is his own. ([Location 1967](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1967)) - Praise the quality in him which cannot be given or snatched away, ([Location 1969](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1969)) - It is soul, and reason brought to perfection in the soul. For man is a reasoning animal. ([Location 1970](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1970)) - man’s highest good is attained, if he has fulfilled the good for which nature designed him at birth. ([Location 1970](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1970)) - Note: Fulfillment of ones purpose? - The easiest thing in the world—to live in accordance with his own nature. ([Location 1971](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1971)) - In the case of many men, their vices, being powerless, escape notice; although, as soon as the persons in question have become satisfied with their own strength, the vices will be no less daring than those which prosperity has already disclosed. ([Location 1985](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1985)) - These men simply lack the means whereby they may unfold their wickedness. ([Location 1987](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1987)) - bird of passage, ([Location 1991](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=1991)) - let us see how much we must pay for that which we crave. ([Location 2002](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2002)) - Very often the things that cost nothing cost us the most heavily; I can show you many objects the quest and acquisition of which have wrested freedom from our hands. We should belong to ourselves, if only these things did not belong to us. ([Location 2003](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2003)) - Look about you and note the things that drive us mad, which we lose with a flood of tears; you will perceive that it is not the loss that troubles us with reference to these things, but a notion of loss. ([Location 2008](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2008)) - He that owns himself has lost nothing. ([Location 2010](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2010)) - A ship which looms large in the river seems tiny when on the ocean. A rudder which is large for one vessel, is small for another. ([Location 2017](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2017)) - a noble mind is free to all men; according to this test, we may all gain distinction. ([Location 2036](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2036)) - there is anything that can make life happy, it is good on its own merits; for it cannot degenerate into evil. ([Location 2049](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2049)) - Where, then, lies the mistake, since all men crave the happy life? It is that they regard the means for producing happiness as happiness itself, and, while seeking happiness, they are really fleeing from it. ([Location 2050](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2050)) - The good must in every case be necessary; but that which is necessary is not in every case a good, since certain very paltry things are indeed necessary. ([Location 2097](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2097)) - Consider individuals, survey men in general; there is none whose life does not look forward to the morrow. “What harm is there in this,” you ask? Infinite harm; for such persons do not live, but are preparing to live. They postpone everything. Even if we paid strict attention, life would soon get ahead of us; but as we are now, life finds us lingering and passes us by as if it belonged to another, and though it ends on the final day, it perishes every day. ([Location 2101](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2101)) - Note: Reminded me to be mindful and be present - Kindly remember that he whom you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives, and dies. ([Location 2156](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2156)) - I propose to value them according to their character, and not according to their duties. ([Location 2175](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2175)) - Each man acquires his character for himself, but accident assigns his duties. ([Location 2175](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2175)) - Invite some to your table because they deserve the honor, and others that they may come to deserve it. ([Location 2176](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2176)) - For if there is any slavish quality in them as the result of their low associations, it will be shaken off by intercourse with men of gentler breeding. ([Location 2177](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2177)) - As he is a fool who, when purchasing a horse, does not consider the animal’s points, but merely his saddle and bridle; so he is doubly a fool who values a man from his clothes or from his rank, which indeed is only a robe that clothes us. ([Location 2179](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2179)) - Anyone who holds this opinion forgets that what is enough for a god cannot be too little for a master. Respect means love, and love and fear cannot be mingled. ([Location 2189](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2189)) - That which annoys us does not necessarily injure us; ([Location 2191](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2191)) - we are driven into wild rage by our luxurious lives, so that whatever does not answer our whims arouses our anger. ([Location 2191](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2191)) - Bring it to pass that I shall cease trying to escape from death, and that life may cease to escape from me. Give me courage to meet hardships; make me calm in the face of the unavoidable. Relax the straitened limits of the time which is allotted me. Show me that the good in life does not depend upon life’s length, but upon the use we make of it; also, that it is possible, or rather usual, for a man who has lived long to have lived too little. Say to me when I lie down to sleep: “You may not wake again!” And when I have waked: “You may not go to sleep again!” Say to me when I go forth from my house: “You may not return!” And when I return: “You may never go forth again!” You are mistaken if you think that only on an ocean voyage there is a very slight space between life and death. No, the distance between is just as narrow everywhere. It is not everywhere that death shows himself so near at hand; yet everywhere he is as near at hand. ([Location 2295](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2295)) - For what else are you busied with except improving yourself every day, laying aside some error, and coming to understand that the faults which you attribute to circumstances are in yourself? ([Location 2311](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2311)) - Note: Does Stoicism teaches us to not accept ourselves? - No man finds it difficult to return to nature, except the man who has deserted nature. ([Location 2325](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2325)) - There is no man to whom a good mind comes before an evil one. It is the evil mind that gets first hold on all of us. Learning virtue means unlearning vice. ([Location 2333](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2333)) - if he is contemplating withdrawal from the world, he will not select Canopus3 (although Canopus does not keep any man from living simply), nor Baiae either; for both places have begun to be resorts of vice. ([Location 2352](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2352)) - Note: Avoid temptations - We ought to see to it that we flee to the greatest possible distance from provocations to vice. ([Location 2358](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2358)) - Fortune is fighting against me, and I shall not carry out her commands. ([Location 2368](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2368)) - The soul is not to be pampered; surrendering to pleasure means also surrendering to pain, surrendering to toil, surrendering to poverty. ([Location 2369](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2369)) - And what is freedom, you ask? It means not being a slave to any circumstance, to any constraint, to any chance; ([Location 2372](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2372)) - means compelling Fortune to enter the lists on equal terms. ([Location 2372](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2372)) - The spirit is weakened by surroundings that are too pleasant, and without a doubt one’s place of residence can contribute towards impairing its vigour. ([Location 2375](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2375)) - Vice, Lucilius, is what I wish you to proceed against, without limit and without end. For it has neither limit nor end. If any vice rend your heart, cast it away from you; and if you cannot be rid of it in any other way, pluck out your heart also. Above all, drive pleasures from your sight. Hate them beyond all other things, for they are like the bandits whom the Egyptians call “lovers,” who embrace us only to garrote us. Farewell. ([Location 2388](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2388)) - So with men’s dispositions; some are pliable and easy to manage, but others have to be laboriously wrought out by hand, so to speak, and are wholly employed in the making of their own foundations. ([Location 2414](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2414)) - feel, has deserved better of himself, who has won a victory over the meanness of his own nature, ([Location 2416](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2416)) - but men who teach us by their lives, men who tell us what we ought to do and then prove it by practise, who show us what we should avoid, and then are never caught doing that which they have ordered us to avoid. ([Location 2422](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2422)) - provided they appear before the people for the express purpose of improving themselves and others, and do not practise their profession for the sake of self-seeking. ([Location 2426](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2426)) - These qualities become known by certain marks; but you can tell the character of every man when you see how he gives and receives praise. ([Location 2438](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2438)) - But let them be roused to the matter, and not to the style; otherwise, eloquence does them harm, ([Location 2443](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2443)) - Why will no man confess his faults? Because he is still in their grasp; only he who is awake can recount his dream, and similarly a confession of sin is a proof of sound mind. ([Location 2475](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2475)) - Do not study philosophy merely during your spare time. ([Location 2479](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2479)) - If you were ill, you would stop caring for your personal concerns, and forget your business duties; you would not think highly enough of any client to take active charge of his case during a slight abatement of your sufferings. ([Location 2480](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2480)) - You would try your hardest to be rid of the illness as soon as possible. ([Location 2481](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2481)) - What, then? Shall you not do the same thing now? ([Location 2482](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2482)) - Throw aside all hindrances and give up your time to getting a sound mind; for no man can attain it if he is engrossed in other matters. ([Location 2482](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2482)) - Turn to her, therefore, with all your soul, sit at her feet, cherish her; a great distance will then begin to separate you from other men. ([Location 2488](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2488)) - Note: Wisdom - would you not say that one was the greatest of fools who believed that a lamp was worse off when it was extinguished than before it was lighted? We mortals also are lighted and extinguished; the period of suffering comes in between, but on either side there is a deep peace. ([Location 2514](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2514)) - Accept this assurance from me—I shall never be frightened when the last hour comes; I am already prepared and do not plan a whole day ahead. ([Location 2522](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2522)) - And yet there is virtue even in this: I am indeed thrust out, but it is as if I were going away willingly. For that reason the wise man can never be thrust out, because that would mean removal from a place which he was unwilling to leave; and the wise man does nothing unwillingly. ([Location 2525](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2525)) - Note: Power of choice - This person is not living for himself he is living for his belly, his sleep, and his lust ([Location 2551](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2551)) - Note: Driven by unconscious motives - A friend should be retained in the spirit; such a friend can never be absent. He can see every day whomsoever he desires to see. ([Location 2571](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2571)) - You need not suppose that the soul is at peace when the body is still. Sometimes quiet means disquiet. ([Location 2608](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2608)) - For all unconcealed vices are less serious; a disease also is farther on the road to being cured when it breaks forth from concealment and manifests its power. So with greed, ambition, and the other evils of the mind—you may be sure that they do most harm when they are hidden behind a pretence of soundness. ([Location 2616](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2616)) - For we Stoics hold that pleasure is a vice. ([Location 2821](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2821)) - nature? A very little will send her away contented. It is not the natural hunger of our bellies that costs us dear, but our solicitous cravings. ([Location 2906](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2906)) - I am endeavouring to live every day as if it were a complete life. ([Location 2914](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2914)) - See to it that you never do anything unwillingly. ([Location 2918](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2918)) - he who takes his orders gladly, escapes the bitterest part of slavery ([Location 2919](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2919)) - what one does not want to do. ([Location 2920](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2920)) - We must make ready for death before we make ready for life. ([Location 2922](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2922)) - To have lived long enough depends neither upon our years nor upon our days, but upon our minds. ([Location 2923](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2923)) - But will you tolerate men who are most careless of their friends, and then mourn them most abjectly, and do not love anyone unless they have lost him? The reason why they lament too unrestrainedly at such times is that they are afraid lest men doubt whether they really have loved; all too late they seek for proofs of their emotions. ([Location 2964](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2964)) - on the other hand, we have no other friends, we have injured ourselves more than Fortune has injured us; since Fortune has robbed us of one friend, but we have robbed ourselves of every friend whom we have failed to make. ([Location 2967](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2967)) - If a man who has lost his one and only tunic through robbery chooses to bewail his plight rather than look about him for some way to escape the cold, or for something with which to cover his shoulders, would you not think him an utter fool? ([Location 2969](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2969)) - Quintus Sextius the Elder. ([Location 2999](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=2999)) - But we should play the part of a careful householder; we should increase what we have inherited. This inheritance shall pass from me to my descendants larger than before. ([Location 3014](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=3014)) - The cures for the spirit also have been discovered by the ancients; but it is our task to learn the method and the time of treatment. ([Location 3022](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=3022)) - Note: even as the cure has been discovered, it is us, to learn how and when to apply treatment for what ailments. - I SHARED MY time yesterday with ill health; it claimed for itself all the period before noon; in the afternoon, however, it yielded to me. ([Location 3030](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=3030)) - Note: It is a nice way to say this, externalising the problem. I shared my time yesterday with melocholia, it claimed for itself all the period before lunch time. - All art is but imitation of nature; ([Location 3040](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=3040)) - I think Claranus has been produced as a pattern, that we might be enabled to understand that the soul is not disfigured by the ugliness of the body, but rather the opposite, that the body is beautified by the comeliness of the soul. ([Location 3138](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01N9BAEOR&location=3138))