pt the shouts and discordant
clamors of those who invite us to proceed in different directions, our
short life will be wasted in useless roamings, even if we labor both
day and night to get a good understanding. Let us not therefore decide
whither we must tend, and by what path, without the advice of some
experienced person who has explored the region which we are about to
enter, because this journey is not subject to the same conditions as
others; for in them some distinctly understood track and inquiries
made of the natives make it impossible for us to go wrong, but here
the most beaten and frequented tracks are those which lead us astray.
Nothing, therefore, is more important than that we should not, like
sheep, follow the flock that has gone before us, and thus proceed not
whither we ought, but whither the rest are going....

True wisdom consists in not departing from nature and in molding our
conduct according to her laws and model. A happy life, therefore, is
one which is in accordance with its own nature, and can not be brought
about unless in the first place the mind be sound and vigorous,
enduring all things with most admirable courage suited to the times in
which it lives, careful of the body and its appurtenances, yet not
troublesomely careful. It must also set due value upon all the things
which adorn our lives, without overestimating any one of them, and
must be able to enjoy the bounty of Fortune without becoming her
slave....

A happy life consists in a mind which is free, upright, undaunted, and
stedfast beyond the influence of fear or desire, which thinks nothing
good except honor, and nothing bad except shame, and regards
everything else as a mass of mean details which can neither add
anything to nor take anything away from the happiness of life, but
which come and go without either increasing or diminishing the highest
good? A man of these principles, whether he will or no, must be
accompanied by a continual cheerfulness, a high happiness, which
comes indeed from on high because he delights in what he has, and
desires no greater pleasures than those which his home affords. Is he
not right in allowing these to turn the scale against petty,
ridiculous, and short-lived movements of his wretched body? on the day
on which he becomes proof against pleasure he also becomes proof
against pain. See, on the other hand, how evil and guilty a slavery a
man is forced to serve who is dominated in turn by pleasure