The mind without passion is a fortress. No place is more secure. Once we take refuge there we are safe forever. 8.48 Humans were made to help others. And when we do help others–or help them do something–we’re doing what we weredesignedfor. We perform our function. 9.42 And for a human being to feel stress is normal–if he’s living a normal human life. And if it’s normal, how can it be bad? 6.33 The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don’t. 6.47

Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? Can any process take place without something being changed? 7.18 Because anger too is weakness, as much as breaking down and giving up the struggle. Both are deserters: the man who breaks and runs, and the one who lets himself be alienated from his fellow humans. 11.9Not to be driven this way and that, but to always behave with justice and to see things as they are. 4.22 Everything you’re trying to reach–by taking the long way round–you could have right now, this moment. If you’d only stop thwarting your own attempts. If you’d only let go of the past, entrust the future to God, and guide the present towards reverence and justice. 12.1

Dowhatnature demands. Get a move on–if you have it in you–and don’t worrywhetheranyone will give youcreditfor it. And don’t go expecting Plato’s republic; be satisfied with even the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it all as unimportant. 9.29 At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work–as a human being…I am going to what I was born for.” 5.1 To follow the logos in all things is to be relaxed and energetic, joyful and serious at once. 10.12Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly. 7.56

Wash yourself clean. With simplicity, with humility, with indifference to everything but right and wrong. Care for other human beings. Follow God. 7.31 What is divinedeservesour respect because it is good; what is human deserves our affection because it is like us. 2.13Today Iescapedfrom anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions–not outside. 9.13 The tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say. Or think, or do. Only what you do. 4.18 The others obey their own lead, follow their own impulses. Don’t be distracted. Keep walking. Follow your own nature, and follow Nature–along the road they share. 5.3 But the man motivated by desire, who is mastered by pleasure, seems somehow more self-indulgent, less manly in his sins. 2.10