Historical voices

Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.

But I will look to this, that I be not discovered doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.

The spherical form of the soul maintains its figure when it is neither extended towards any object, nor contracted inwards, nor dispersed, nor sinks down, but is illuminated by light, by which it sees the truth,--the truth of all things…

Let then thy judgment about them be at rest, and they will remain quiet, and thou wilt not be seen either pursuing or avoiding.

If the things do not come to thee, the pursuits and avoidances of which disturb thee, still in a manner thou goest to them.

But if this is so, that nature which is the most perfect and the most comprehensive of all natures, cannot fall short of the skill of art Now all arts do the inferior things for the sake of the superior; therefore the universal nature does…

There is no nature which is inferior to art, for the arts imitate the natures of things.

For this also is a weakness, to be vexed at them, as well as to be diverted from thy course of action and to give way through fear; for both are equally deserters from their post,--the man who does it through fear, and the man who is…

However, if it often happens, this kind of separation, it makes it difficult for that which detaches itself to be brought to unity and to be restored to its former condition.

Yet he has this privilege certainly from Zeus, who framed society, for it is in our power to grow again to that which is near to us, and again to become a part which helps to make up the whole.

Now as to a branch, another cuts it off; but a man by his own act separates himself from his neighbor when he hates him and turns away from him, and he does not know that he has at the same time cut himself off from the whole social system.

So too a man when he is separated from another man has fallen off from the whole social community.

A branch cut off from the adjacent branch must of necessity be cut off from the whole tree also.

How plain does it appear that there is not another condition of life so well suited for philosophizing as this in which thou now happenest to be.

We must not chafe and fret at that which happens.

At first tragedies were brought on the stage as means of reminding men of the things which happen to them, and that it is according to nature for things to happen so, and that, if you are delighted with what is shown on the stage, you…

And how is this accomplished well except by general principles, some about the nature of the universe, and others about the proper constitution of man?

Have I done something for the general interest?

In all things, then, except virtue and the acts of virtue, remember to apply thyself to their several parts, and by this division to come to value them little: and apply this rule also to thy whole life.

Not as in a dance and in a play and in such like things, where the whole action is incomplete if anything cuts it short; but in every part, and wherever it may be stopped, it makes what has been set before it full and complete, so that it…

These are the properties of the rational soul: it sees itself, analyzes itself, and makes itself such as it chooses; the fruit which it bears itself enjoys--for the fruits of plants and that in animals which corresponds to fruits others…

In contemplating thyself never include the vessel which surrounds thee and these instruments which are attached about it.

Remember that this which pulls the strings is the thing which is hidden within: this is the power of persuasion, this is life, this, if one may so say, is man.

But begin with thyself, and examine thyself first.