9781945186240

Don’t worry about how long you’ll go on doing this.
A single afternoon would be enough.
24. Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same
thing happened to both. They were absorbed alike into the life force of the
world, or dissolved alike into atoms.
25. Think how much is going on inside you every second—in your soul,
in your body. Why should it astonish you that so much more—everything
that happens in that all-embracing unity, the world—is happening at the
same time?
26. If someone asked you how to write your name, would you clench
your teeth and spit out the letters one by one? If he lost his temper, would
you lose yours as well? Or would you just spell out the individual letters?
Remember—your responsibilities can be broken down into individual
parts as well. Concentrate on those, and finish the job methodically—
without getting stirred up or meeting anger with anger.
27. How cruel—to forbid people to want what they think is good for
them. And yet that’s just what you won’t let them do when you get angry at
their misbehavior. They’re drawn toward what they think is good for them.
—But it’s not good for them.
Then show them that. Prove it to them. Instead of losing your temper.
28. Death. The end of sense-perception, of being controlled by our
emotions, of mental activity, of enslavement to our bodies.
29. Disgraceful: for the soul to give up when the body is still going
strong.
30. To escape imperialization—that indelible stain. It happens. Make
sure you remain straightforward, upright, reverent, serious, unadorned, an
ally of justice, pious, kind, affectionate, and doing your duty with a will.
Fight to be the person philosophy tried to make you.
Revere the gods; watch over human beings. Our lives are short. The
only rewards of our existence here are an unstained character and unselfish
acts.