Every man's life is
sufficient.+ But thine is nearly finished, though thy soul reverences
not itself, but places thy felicity in the souls of others.

[A] Perhaps it should be, "thou art doing violence to thyself."
[Greek: hybrizeis] not [Greek: hybrize].

7. Do the things external which fall upon thee distract thee? Give
thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled
around. But then thou must also avoid being carried about the other way;
for those too are triflers who have wearied themselves in life by their
activity, and yet have no object to which to direct every movement, and,
in a word, all their thoughts.

8. Through not observing what is in the mind of another a man has seldom
been seen to be unhappy; but those who do not observe the movements of
their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.

9. This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole,
and what is my nature, and how this is related to that, and what kind of
a part it is of what kind of a whole, and that there is no one who
hinders thee from always doing and saying the things which are according
to the nature of which thou art a part.

10. Theophrastus, in his comparison of bad acts--such a comparison as
one would make in accordance with the common notions of mankind--says,
like a true philosopher, that the offenses which are committed through
desire are more blamable than those which are committed through anger.
For he who is excited by anger seems to turn away from reason with a
certain pain and unconscious contraction; but he who offends through
desire, being overpowered by pleasure, seems to be in a manner more
intemperate and more womanish in his offences. Rightly, then, and in a
way worthy of philosophy, he said that the offence which is committed
with pleasure is more blamable than that which is committed with pain;
and on the whole the one is more like a person who has been first
wronged and through pain is compelled to be angry, but the other is
moved by his own impulse to do wrong, being carried towards doing
something by desire.

11. Since it is possible[A] that thou mayest depart from life this very
moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.[B] But to go away
from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for
the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist,
or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live
in a