VII. (2)

Upon all occasions we ought to have these maxims ready at hand: —

And this third: —

“O Crito, if it thus pleases the gods, thus let it be.” “Anytus and Melitus may kill me indeed; but hurt me they cannot.”

A LIFE at odds with Fortune resembles a wintry torrent; for it is turbulent and muddy and difficult to pass, and violent and noisy and brief.

A soul conversant with virtue resembles a perpetual fountain; for it is clear and gentle and agreeable and sweet and serviceable and rich and harmless and innocent.

If you would be good, first believe that you are bad.

It is better sometimes frankly to offend, and act often wisely, than to say we seldom err and offend frequently.

Chastise your passions, that they may not chastise you.

Be not so much ashamed of what is inglorious, as studious to shun what is untruthful.

If you would be well spoken of, learn to speak well of others. And when you have learned to speak well, endeavor likewise to do well; and thus you will reap the fruit of being well spoken of.

Freedom and slavery are merely names of virtue and of vice; and both these are matters of will. But neither of them belongs to things in which will has no share. But Fortune is accustomed to dispose at her pleasure of the body, and those things relating to the body in which will has no share. For no one is a slave whose will is free.

Fortune is an evil chain to the body, and vice to the soul. For he whose body is unbound, and whose soul is chained, is a slave. On the contrary, he whose body is chained, and his soul unbound, is free. The chain of the body, Nature unbinds by death, or baseness for money; the chain of the soul, virtue unbinds by wisdom and experience and philosophic training.