Historical voices

Hast thou determined to abide with vice, and hast not experience yet induced thee to fly from this pestilence?

It would be a man's happiest lot to depart from mankind without having had any taste of lying and hypocrisy and luxury and pride.

With respect to pain, then, and pleasure, or death and life, or honor and dishonor, which the universal nature employs equally, whoever is not equally affected is manifestly acting impiously.

And he who pursues pleasure will not abstain from injustice, and this is plainly impiety.

And further, he who is afraid of pain will sometimes also be afraid of some of the things which will happen in the world, and even this is impiety.

And indeed he who pursues pleasure as good, and avoids pain as evil, is guilty of impiety.

For since the universal nature has made rational animals for the sake of one another, to help one another according to their deserts, but in no way to injure one another, he who transgresses her will is clearly guilty of impiety towards…

The mind indeed, both when it exercises caution and when it is employed about inquiry, moves straight onward not the less, and to its object.

But if thou shalt have no sensation, neither wilt thou feel any harm; and if thou shalt acquire another kind of sensation, thou wilt be a different kind of living being and thou wilt not cease to live.

He who fears death either fears the loss of sensation or a different kind of sensation.

Such then ought to be the outpouring and diffusion of the understanding, and it should in no way be an effusion, but an extension, and it should make no violent or impetuous collision with the obstacles which are in its way; nor yet fall…

For though we are made especially for the sake of one another, still the ruling power of each of us has its own office, for otherwise my neighbor's wickedness would be my harm, which God has not willed, in order that my unhappiness may not…

To my own free will the free will of my neighbor is just as indifferent as his poor breath and flesh.

No longer let thy breathing only act in concert with the air which surrounds thee, but let thy intelligence also now be in harmony with the intelligence which embraces all things.

Dost thou wish to be praised by a man who curses himself thrice every hour? wouldst thou wish to please a man who does not please himself?

And he who does not know for what purpose the world exists, does not know who he is, nor what the world is.

He who does not know what the world is, does not know where he is.

What then can these things do to prevent thy mind from remaining pure, wise, sober, just?

Neither in thy actions be sluggish nor in thy conversation without method, nor wandering in thy thoughts, nor let there be in thy soul inward contention nor external effusion, nor in life be so busy as to have no leisure.

A cucumber is bitter--Throw it away.--There are briers in the road--Turn aside from them.--This is enough.

Thus then always abide by the first appearances, and add nothing thyself from within, and then nothing happens to thee.

Say nothing more to thyself than what the first appearances report.

Therefore the mind which is free from passions is a citadel, for man has nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be inexpugnable.

Remember that the ruling faculty is invincible, when self-collected it is satisfied with itself, if it does nothing which it does not choose to do, even if it resist from mere obstinacy.