Author: Ed.)
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It is admirable to consider how many Millions of People come into, and go out of the World, Ignorant of themselves, and of the World they have lived in.
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Children had rather be making of Tools and Instruments of Play; Shaping, Drawing, Framing, and Building, &c. than getting some Rules of Propriety of Speech by Heart:
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The want of due Consideration is the Cause of all the Unhappiness Man brings upon himself.
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We are apt to be very pert at censuring others, where we will not endure advice our selves
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Frugality is good if Liberality be join’d with it. The first is leaving off superfluous Expences; the last bestowing them to the Benefit of others that need
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the famous “Socratic irony” was shown in his attitude of apparent willingness to learn from anyone who professed to know.
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Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is—for he knows
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Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is—for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows.
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they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them.
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there are plenty of persons, as they soon enough discover, who think that they know something, but really know little or nothing:
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a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong—acting the part of a good man or of a bad.
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God orders me to fulfil the philosopher’s mission of searching into myself and other men, I were to desert my post through fear of death, or any other fear; that would indeed be strange, and I might justly be arraigned in court for denying the existence of the gods, if I disobeyed the oracle because I was afraid of death: then I should be fancying that I was wise when I was not wise.
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God orders me to fulfil the philosopher’s mission of searching into myself and other men,
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For this fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown; since no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.
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but whatever you do, know that I shall never alter my ways, not even if I have to die many times.
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And that I am given to you by God is proved by this: that if I had been like other men,
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The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.
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My friend, I am a man, and like other men, a creature of flesh and blood, and not of wood or stone, as Homer says;
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for I do believe that there are gods, and in a far higher sense than that in which any of my accusers believe in them.
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But I had not the boldness or impudence or inclination to address you as you would have liked me to address you,
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For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything.
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For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death;
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The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.
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the easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.
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regard this as a proof that what has happened to me is a good, and that those of us who think that death is an evil are in error.
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death is a good, for one of two things: either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another.
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Now if death is like this, I say that to die, is gain; for eternity is then only a single night.
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Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth—that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
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if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue; or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing—then reprove them, as I have reproved you, for not caring about that for which they ought to care, and thinking that they are something when they are really nothing.
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Good men, and they are the only persons who are worth considering, will think of these things truly as they happened.
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Epictetus is a main authority on Stoic morals. The points on which he laid chief stress were the importance of cultivating complete independence of external circumstances, the realization that man must find happiness within himself, and the duty of reverencing the voice of Reason in the soul.
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Rufus [2] used to say, If you have leisure to praise me, what I say is naught.
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If you have leisure to praise me, what I say is naught. In truth he spoke in such
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What saith Antisthenes? [3] Hast thou never heard?— It is a kingly thing, O Cyrus, to do well and to be evil spoken of.
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You know yourself what you are worth in your own eyes; and at what price you will sell yourself.
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For the man who has once stooped to consider such questions, and to reckon up the value of external things, is not far from forgetting what manner of man he is.
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But I desire to be the purple—that small and shining part which makes the rest seem fair and beautiful.
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Why, what am I?—A wretched human creature; with this miserable flesh of mine.
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“To-morrow, my friend,” I said, “you will find an earthenware lamp; for a man can only lose what he has.”
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Shall I not use the power to the end for which I received it, instead of moaning and wailing over what comes to pass?
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never, when asked one’s country, to answer, “I am an Athenian or a Corinthian,” but “I am a citizen of the world.”
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He that hath grasped the administration of the World, who hath learned that this Community, which consists of God and men, is the foremost and mightiest and most comprehensive of all:—
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As it is, what does pass? The teacher is a lifeless body, and you are lifeless bodies yourselves.
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When you have had enough to eat to-day, you sit down and weep about to-morrow’s food. Slave! if you have it, well and good; if not, you will depart: the door is open—why lament?
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but there you sit, trembling for fear certain things should come to pass, and moaning and groaning and lamenting over what does come to pass.
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If we were as intent upon our own business as the old fellows at Rome are upon what interests them, we too might perhaps accomplish something.
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A man asked me to write to Rome on his behalf who, as most people thought, had met with misfortune; for having been before wealthy and distinguished, he had afterwards lost all and was living here. So I wrote about him in a humble style. He however on reading the letter returned it to me, with the words: “I asked for your help, not for your pity. No evil has happened unto me.”
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A fifth, of whom were Ulysses and Socrates, are those that cry:— I move not without Thy knowledge!
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You must know that it is no easy thing for a principle to become a man’s own, unless each day he maintain it and hear it maintained, as well as work it out in life.
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You are impatient and hard to please. If alone, you call it solitude: if in the company of men, you dub them conspirators and thieves, and find fault with your very parents, children, brothers and neighbours. Whereas when by yourself you should have called it Tranquillity and Freedom: and herein deemed yourself like unto the Gods.
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Throw him into prison!”—What prison?—Where he is already: for he is there against his will; and wherever a man is against his will, that to him is a prison.
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“But” you say, “I cannot comprehend all this at once.” Why, who told you that your powers were equal to God’s?”
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What you shun enduring yourself, attempt not to impose on others.
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If a man recognises that this is in a weakly state, he will not then want to apply it to questions of the greatest moment.
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As it is, men who are not fit to swallow even a morsel, buy whole treatises and try to devour them.
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In theory it is easy to convince an ignorant person: in actual life, men not only object to offer themselves to be convinced, but hate the man who has convinced them.