DioLiu/Test1 · Datasets at Hugging Face

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Life must be reaped like the ripe ears of corn:
One man is born; another dies.

If gods care not for me and for my children,
There is a reason for it.

For the good is with me, and the just.

No joining others in their wailing, no violent emotion.

From Plato: But I would make this man a sufficient answer, which is
this: Thou sayest not well, if thou thinkest that a man who is good
for anything at all ought to compute the hazard of life or death,
and should not rather look to this only in all that he does, whether
he is doing what is just or unjust, and the works of a good or a bad
man.

For thus it is, men of Athens, in truth: wherever a man has placed
himself thinking it the best place for him, or has been placed by
a commander, there in my opinion he ought to stay and to abide the
hazard, taking nothing into the reckoning, either death or anything
else, before the baseness of deserting his post.

But, my good friend, reflect whether that which is noble and good
is not something different from saving and being saved; for as to
a man living such or such a time, at least one who is really a man,
consider if this is not a thing to be dismissed from the thoughts:
and there must be no love of life: but as to these matters a man must
intrust them to the deity and believe what the women say, that no
man can escape his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best
live the time that he has to live.

Look round at the courses of the stars, as if thou wert going along
with them; and constantly consider the changes of the elements into
one another; for such thoughts purge away the filth of the terrene
life.

This is a fine saying of Plato: That he who is discoursing about men
should look also at earthly things as if he viewed them from some
higher place; should look at them in their assemblies, armies, agricultural
labours, marriages, treaties, births, deaths, noise of the courts
of justice, desert places, various nations of barbarians, feasts,
lamentations, markets, a mixture of all things and an orderly combination
of contraries.

Consider the past; such great changes of political supremacies. Thou
mayest foresee also the things which will be. For they will certainly
be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from
the order of the things which take place now: accordingly to have
contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated
it for ten thousand years. For what more wilt thou see?

That which has grown from the earth to the earth,
But that which has sprung from heavenly seed,
Back to the heavenly realms returns. This is either a dissolution
of the mutual involution of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of
the unsentient elements.

With food and drinks and cunning magic arts
Turning the channel's course to 'scape from death.
The breeze which heaven has sent
We must endure, and toil without complaining.

Another may be more expert in casting his opponent; but he is not
more social, nor more modest, nor better disciplined to meet all that
happens, nor more considerate with respect to the faults of his neighbours.

Where any work can be done conformably to the reason which is common
to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear: for where we are able
to get profit by means of the activity which is successful and proceeds
according to our constitution, there no harm is to be suspected.

Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power piously to acquiesce
in thy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about
thee, and to exert thy skill upon thy present thoughts, that nothing
shall steal into them without being well examined.

Do not look around thee to discover other men's ruling principles,
but look straight to this, to what nature leads thee, both the universal
nature through the things which happen to thee, and thy own nature
through the acts which must be done by thee. But every being ought
to do that which is according to its constitution; and all other things
have been constituted for the sake of rational beings, just as among
irrational things the inferior for the sake of the superior, but the
rational for the sake of one another.

The prime principle then in man's constitution is the social. And
the second is not to yield to the persuasions of the body, for it
is the peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion to circumscribe
itself, and never to be overpowered either by the motion of the senses
or of the appetites, for both are animal; but the intelligent motion
claims superiority and does not permit itself to be overpowered by
the others. And with good reason, for it is formed by nature to use
all of them. The third thing in the rational constitution is freedom
from error and from deception. Let then the ruling principle holding
fast to these things go straight on, and it has what is its own.

Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to
the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which
is allowed thee.

Life must be reaped like the ripe ears of corn:

One man is born; another dies.

If gods care not for me and for my children,

There is a reason for it.

For the good is with me, and the just.

No joining others in their wailing, no violent emotion.

From Plato: But I would make this man a sufficient answer, which is

this: Thou sayest not well, if thou thinkest that a man who is good

for anything at all ought to compute the hazard of life or death,

and should not rather look to this only in all that he does, whether

he is doing what is just or unjust, and the works of a good or a bad

man.

For thus it is, men of Athens, in truth: wherever a man has placed

himself thinking it the best place for him, or has been placed by

a commander, there in my opinion he ought to stay and to abide the

hazard, taking nothing into the reckoning, either death or anything

else, before the baseness of deserting his post.

But, my good friend, reflect whether that which is noble and good

is not something different from saving and being saved; for as to

a man living such or such a time, at least one who is really a man,

consider if this is not a thing to be dismissed from the thoughts:

and there must be no love of life: but as to these matters a man must

intrust them to the deity and believe what the women say, that no

man can escape his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best

live the time that he has to live.

Look round at the courses of the stars, as if thou wert going along

with them; and constantly consider the changes of the elements into

one another; for such thoughts purge away the filth of the terrene

life.

This is a fine saying of Plato: That he who is discoursing about men

should look also at earthly things as if he viewed them from some

higher place; should look at them in their assemblies, armies, agricultural

labours, marriages, treaties, births, deaths, noise of the courts

of justice, desert places, various nations of barbarians, feasts,

lamentations, markets, a mixture of all things and an orderly combination

of contraries.

Consider the past; such great changes of political supremacies. Thou

mayest foresee also the things which will be. For they will certainly

be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from

the order of the things which take place now: accordingly to have

contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated

it for ten thousand years. For what more wilt thou see?

That which has grown from the earth to the earth,

But that which has sprung from heavenly seed,

Back to the heavenly realms returns. This is either a dissolution

of the mutual involution of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of

the unsentient elements.

With food and drinks and cunning magic arts

Turning the channel's course to 'scape from death.

The breeze which heaven has sent

We must endure, and toil without complaining.

Another may be more expert in casting his opponent; but he is not

more social, nor more modest, nor better disciplined to meet all that

happens, nor more considerate with respect to the faults of his neighbours.

Where any work can be done conformably to the reason which is common

to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear: for where we are able

to get profit by means of the activity which is successful and proceeds

according to our constitution, there no harm is to be suspected.

Everywhere and at all times it is in thy power piously to acquiesce

in thy present condition, and to behave justly to those who are about

thee, and to exert thy skill upon thy present thoughts, that nothing

shall steal into them without being well examined.

Do not look around thee to discover other men's ruling principles,

but look straight to this, to what nature leads thee, both the universal

nature through the things which happen to thee, and thy own nature

through the acts which must be done by thee. But every being ought

to do that which is according to its constitution; and all other things

have been constituted for the sake of rational beings, just as among

irrational things the inferior for the sake of the superior, but the

rational for the sake of one another.

The prime principle then in man's constitution is the social. And

the second is not to yield to the persuasions of the body, for it

is the peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion to circumscribe

itself, and never to be overpowered either by the motion of the senses

or of the appetites, for both are animal; but the intelligent motion

claims superiority and does not permit itself to be overpowered by

the others. And with good reason, for it is formed by nature to use

all of them. The third thing in the rational constitution is freedom

from error and from deception. Let then the ruling principle holding

fast to these things go straight on, and it has what is its own.

Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to

the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which

is allowed thee.