Soo…I’m loving this. The world needs more stoic philosophy and less…non-stoic philosophy. Right. Anyways, a few of these quotes put into words exactly the way I feel about some things, like this:

“Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.”

…and this:

“As a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee when it has made the honey, so a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season.”

Also, I’ve come to realize all my blog posts are pretty much excerpts and quotes. Umm…you know, that’s okay though…I talk far too much in real life so it’s nice to let other people say things for once =P

Oh, and these are not just quotes…they’re POWER QUOTES. RAAAARRR!!!

“…the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.”

“…For we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another is then contrary to nature.”

“Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou art part, and of what administrator of the universe thy existence is efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return.”

The soul does violence to itself when:
(1) it becomes an abscess or tumor to nature
(2) when it turns away from men or towards men with the intention of injuring
(3) when it is overpowered by pleasure or pain
(4) when it does or says anything untruthfully or insincerely
(5) when any act or movement is without direction

“…and finally, waiting for death with a cheerful mind as being nothing else than a dissolution of the elements…For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature.”

“We ought then to check in the series of our thoughts everything that is without purpose or useless…or anything else for which thou wouldst blush to say thou hadst in thy mind.”

“…be not either a man of many words, or busy about too many things.”

“A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.”

“…making thyself neither the tyrant nor slave of any man.”

“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 was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie in bed clothes and keep myself warm?…Dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure and not at all for action or exertion?”

“As such are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.”

Oh, I’m not even finished this, btw. Got about 2/3 left. Ciao!