Stoic Meditations

We should choose for our friends those who are, as far as possible, free from strong desires: for vices are contagious, and pass from someone to their neighbor, and injure those who touch them.

No good is done by forcing one’s mind to engage in uncongenial work: it is vain to struggle against Nature.

We ought first to examine our own selves, next the business which we propose to transact, next those for whose sake or in whose company we transact it.

We ought therefore, to expand or contract ourselves according as the state of things presents itself to us, or as Fortune offers us opportunities.

The services of a good citizen are never thrown away: he does good by being heard and seen, by his expression, his gestures, his silent determination, and his very walk.

Often a man who is very old in years has nothing beyond his age by which he can prove that he has lived a long time.

Seneca explains that there are many ways to help improve the human cosmopolis: one can be a candidate for public office, a defense lawyer, or a teacher. Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus encouraged involvement in politics, but where themselves teachers.

How long are we to go on doing the same thing?

Hence men undertake aimless wanderings and travel along distant shores, trying to soothe that fickleness of disposition which always is dissatisfied with the present. As Lucretius says: “Thus every mortal from himself does flee.”

What you desire, to be undisturbed, is a great thing, nay, the greatest thing of all, and one which raises a man almost to the level of a god.