text
stringlengths 0
78
|
---|
on the contrary it is a man's duty to comfort himself, and to wait |
for the |
natural dissolution and not to be vexed at the delay, but to rest |
in these principles only: the one, that nothing will happen to me |
which is not conformable to the nature of the universe; and the other, |
that it is in my power never to act contrary to my god and daemon: |
for there is no man who will compel me to this. |
About what am I now employing my own soul? On every occasion I must |
ask myself this question, and inquire, what have I now in this part |
of me which they call the ruling principle? And whose soul have I |
now? That of a child, or of a young man, or of a feeble woman, or |
of a tyrant, or of a domestic animal, or of a wild beast? |
What kind of things those are which appear good to the many, we may |
learn even from this. For if any man should conceive certain things |
as being really good, such as prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude, |
he would not after having first conceived these endure to listen to |
anything which should not be in harmony with what is really good. |
But if a man has first conceived as good the things which appear to |
the many to be good, he will listen and readily receive as very applicable |
that which was said by the comic writer. Thus even the many perceive |
the difference. For were it not so, this saying would not offend and |
would not be rejected in the first case, while we receive it when |
it is said of wealth, and of the means which further luxury and fame, |
as said fitly and wittily. Go on then and ask if we should value and |
think those things to be good, to which after their first conception |
in the mind the words of the comic writer might be aptly applied- |
that he who has them, through pure abundance has not a place to ease |
himself in. |
I am composed of the formal and the material; and neither of them |
will perish into non-existence, as neither of them came into existence |
out of non-existence. Every part of me then will be reduced by change |
into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another |
part of the universe, and so on for ever. And by consequence of such |
a change I too exist, and those who begot me, and so on for ever in |
the other direction. For nothing hinders us from saying so, even if |
the universe is administered according to definite periods of revolution. |
Reason and the reasoning art (philosophy) are powers which are sufficient |
for themselves and for their own works. They move then from a first |
principle which is their own, and they make their way to the end which |
is proposed to them; and this is the reason why such acts are named |
catorthoseis or right acts, which word signifies that they proceed |
by the right road. |
None of these things ought to be called a man's, which do not belong |
to a man, as man. They are not required of a man, nor does man's nature |
promise them, nor are they the means of man's nature attaining its |
end. Neither then does the end of man lie in these things, nor yet |
that which aids to the accomplishment of this end, and that which |
aids towards this end is that which is good. Besides, if any of these |
things did belong to man, it would not be right for a man to despise |
them and to set himself against them; nor would a man be worthy of |
praise who showed that he did not want these things, nor would he |
who stinted himself in any of them be good, if indeed these things |
were good. But now the more of these things a man deprives himself |
of, or of other things like them, or even when he is deprived of any |
of them, the more patiently he endures the loss, just in the same |
degree he is a better man. |
Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character |
of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then with |
a continuous series of such thoughts as these: for instance, that |
where a man can live, there he can also live well. But he must live |
in a palace;- well then, he can also live well in a palace. And again, |
consider that for whatever purpose each thing has been constituted, |
for this it has been constituted, and towards this it is carried; |
and its end is in that towards which it is carried; and where the |
end is, there also is the advantage and the good of each thing. Now |
the good for the reasonable animal is society; for that we are made |
for society has been shown above. Is it not plain that the inferior |
exist for the sake of the superior? But the things which have life |
are superior to those which have not life, and of those which have |
life the superior are those which have reason. |
To seek what is impossible is madness: and it is impossible that the |
bad should not do something of this kind. |
Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear. |
The same things happen to another, and either because he does not |
see that they have happened or because he would show a great spirit |
he is firm and remains unharmed. It is a shame then that ignorance |
and conceit should be stronger than wisdom. |
Things themselves touch not the soul, not in the least degree; nor |
have they admission to the soul, nor can they turn or move the soul: |
but the soul turns and moves itself alone, and whatever judgements |
it may think proper to make, such it makes for itself the things which |
present themselves to it. |
In one respect man is the nearest thing to me, so far as I must do |
good to men and endure them. But so far as some men make themselves |
obstacles to my proper acts, man becomes to me one of the things which |
are indifferent, no less than the sun or wind or a wild beast. Now |
it is true that these may impede my action, but they are no impediments |
to my affects and disposition, which have the power of acting conditionally |
and changing: for the mind converts and changes every hindrance to |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.