Marcus Aurelius: “For what purpose then art thou,--to enjoy pleasure?”

In the application of thy principles thou must be like the pancratiast, not like the gladiator; for the gladiator lets fall the sword which he uses and is killed; but the other always has his hand, and needs to do nothing else than use it.

The third, then, is the ruling part; consider thus: Thou art an old man; no longer let this be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet to unsocial movements, no longer be either dissatisfied with thy present lot, or…

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

All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.