BOOK X

O my soul, are you ever to be rightly good, sincere, and uniform, and made more visible to yourself than the body that hangs about you?  Are you ever likely to relish good nature and general kindness as you ought?  Will you ever be fully satisfied, rise above wanting and wishing, and never desire to obtain your pleasure out of anything foreign, either living or inanimate?  Are you ever likely to be so happily qualified as to converse with the gods and men in such a manner as neither to complain of them nor to be condemned by them?

Put it out of the power of all men to give you a bad name, and if anyone reports you not to be an honest or a good man let your practice give him the lie.  This is quite feasible; for who can hinder you from being just and sincere?

There is no one so happy in his family and friends but that some of them, when they see him going, will rejoice at a good riddance.  Let him be a person of never so much probity and prudence, yet someone will say at his grave:  “Well, our man of order and gravity is gone; we shall be no more troubled with his discipline.”  This is the best treatment a good man must expect.

BOOK XI

What a brave soul it is that is always ready to depart from the body, and is unconcerned as to whether she will be extinguished, scattered, or removed!  But she must be prepared upon reasonable grounds, and not out of mere obstinacy like the Christians; her fortitude must have nothing of noise or of tragic ostentation, but must be grave and seemly.

How fulsome and hollow does that man seem who cries:  “I’m resolved to deal sincerely with you!” Hark you, friend, what need of all this flourish?  Let your actions speak.  Your face ought to vouch for you.  I would have virtue look out of the eye no less apparently than love does.  A man of integrity and good nature can never be concealed, for his character is wrought into his countenance.

Gentleness and good humour are invincible, provided they are of the right stamp and without hypocrisy.  This is the way to disarm the most outrageous person—­to continue kind and unmoved under ill usage, and to strike in at the right opportunity with advice.  But let all be done out of mere love and kindness.

BOOK XII

I have often wondered how it is that everyone should love himself best, and yet value his neighbour’s opinion of him more than his own.  If any man should be ordered to turn his inside outwards, and publish every thought and fancy as fast as they come into his head, he would not submit to so much as a day of this discipline.  Thus it is that we dread our neighbour’s judgment more than our own.

What a mighty privilege man is born to, since it is in his power not to do anything but what God Almighty approves, and to be satisfied with all the distributions of Providence!