Historical voices

As thou intendest to live when them art gone out, ... so it is in thy power to live here.

And he does live with the gods who constantly shows to them that his own soul is satisfied with that which is assigned to him, and that it does all that the daemon wishes, which Zeus hath given to every man for his guardian and guide, a…

Let the part of thy soul which leads and governs be undisturbed by the movements in the flesh, whether of pleasure or of pain; and let it not unite with them, but let it circumscribe itself and limit those affects to their parts.

I now have what the universal nature now wills me to have; and I do what my nature now wills me to do.

Think of the universal substance, of which thou hast a very small portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval has been assigned to thee; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how small a part of it thou…

And consider this which is near to thee, this boundless abyss of the past and of the future in which all things disappear.

Often think of the rapidity with which things pass by and disappear, both the things which are and the things which are produced.

That which does no harm to the state, does no harm to the citizen.

Reverence that which is best in the universe; and this is that which makes use of all things and directs all things.

In one respect man is the nearest thing to me, so far as I must do good to men and endure them.

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 judgments it may think proper to make, such it…

It is a shame then that ignorance and conceit should be stronger than wisdom.

Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.

To seek what is impossible is madness: and it is impossible that the bad should not do something of this kind.

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.

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…

Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

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 forever.

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.

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…

In such darkness then and dirt, and in so constant a flux both of substance and of time, and of motion and of things moved, what there is worth being highly prized, or even an object of serious pursuit, I cannot imagine.

Then turn to the morals of those who live with thee, and it is hardly possible to endure even the most agreeable of them, to say nothing of a man being hardly able to endure himself.

Carry thy thoughts then to the objects themselves, and consider how short-lived they are and worthless, and that they may be in the possession of a filthy wretch or a whore or a robber.

And all our assent is changeable; for where is the man who never changes?