Whatever is agreeable to You, O Universe, is so to me, too.  Your operations are never mistimed.  Whatever Your seasons bring is fruit for me, O Nature.  From You all things proceed, subsist in You, and return to You.  The poet said, “Dear City of Cecrops”; shall we not say, “Dear City of God”?

The greater part of what we say and do is unnecessary; and if this were only retrenched we should have more leisure and less disturbance.  This applies to our thoughts also, for impertinence of thought leads to unnecessary action.

Mankind are poor, transitory things:  one day in life, and the next turned to mummy or ashes.  Therefore manage this minute wisely, and part with it cheerfully; and like a ripe fruit, when you drop, make your acknowledgments to the tree that bore you.

BOOK V

When you feel unwilling to rise early in the morning, make this short speech to yourself:  “I am getting up now to do the business of a man; and am I out of humour for going about that I was made for, and for the sake of which I was sent into the world?  Was I then designed for nothing but to doze beneath the counterpane?” Surely action is the end of your being.  Look upon the plants and birds, the ants, spiders and bees, and you will see that they are all exerting their nature, and busy in their station.  Shall not a man act like a man?

Be not ashamed of any action which is in accordance with Nature, and never be misled by the fear of censure or reproach.  Where honesty prompts you to say or do anything, let not the opinion of others hold you back.  Go forward by the straight path, pursuing your own and the common interest.

Some men, when they do you a kindness, ask for the payment of gratitude; others, more modest, remember the favour and look upon you as their debtor.  But there are yet other benefactors who forget their good deeds; and these are like the vine, which is satisfied by being fruitful in its kind, and bears a bunch of grapes without expecting any thanks for it.  A truly kind man never talks of a good turn that he has done, but does another as soon as he can, just like a vine that bears again the next season.

We commonly say that Aesculapius has prescribed riding for one patient, walking for another, a cold bath for a third.  In the same way we may say that the nature of the Universe has ordered this or that person a disease, loss of limbs or estate, or some such other calamity.  For as, in the first case, the word “prescribed” means a direction for the health of the patient, so, in the latter, it means an application suitable for his constitution and destiny.

Be not uneasy, discouraged or out of humour, because practice falls short of precept in some particulars.  If you happen to be vanquished, come on again, and be glad if most of what you do is worthy of a man.

We ought to live with the gods.  This is done by being contented with the appointments of Providence, and by obeying the orders of that divinity which is God’s deputy; and this divine authority is no more nor less than that soul and reason which every man carries within him.