is in due time for thee. Everything is fruit to me which thy
seasons bring, O Nature: from thee are all things, in thee are all
things, to thee all things return.

In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be
present--I am rising to the work of a human being. Why, then, am I
dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist, and
for which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for
this, to lie in the bedclothes and keep myself warm? But this is
more pleasant. Dost thou exist, then, to take thy pleasure, and not
for action or exertion? Dost thou not see the little plants, the
little birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees, working together to
put in order their several parts of the universe? And art thou
unwilling to do the work of a human being, and dost thou not make
haste to do that which is according to thy nature?

Judge every word and deed which are according to Nature to be fit
for thee, and be not diverted by the blame which follows.... But if
a thing is good to be done or said, do not consider it unworthy of
thee.

Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very
moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.... Death
certainly, and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, all
these things equally happen to good men and bad, being things which
make us neither better nor worse. Therefore they are neither good
nor evil.

To say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a
stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream and vapor; and life
is a warfare, and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.
What, then, is that which is able to enrich a man? One thing, and
only one--philosophy. But this consists in keeping the guardian
spirit within a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to
pains and pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet
falsely, and with hypocrisy ... accepting all that happens and all
that is allotted ... and finally waiting for death with a cheerful
mind.

If thou findest in human life anything better than justice, truth,
temperance, fortitude, and, in a word, than thine own soul's
satisfaction in the things which it enables thee to do according to
right reason, and in the condition that is assigned to thee