If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself 'I used to be angry every day then every other day now only every third or fourth day.' When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods.
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A wise man is he who does not grieve for the thing which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
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Only the educated are free.
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Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths. Remain steadfast...and one day you will build something that endures, something worthy of your potential.
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It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.
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Difficulties show men what they are. In case of any difficulty remember that God has pitted you against a rough antagonist that you may be a conqueror, and this cannot be without toil.
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Everything has two handles,--one by which it may be borne another by which it cannot.
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Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast.
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A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.
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No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
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You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.
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So you wish to conquer in the Olympics, my friend? And I too, by the Gods, and fine thing it would be! But first mark the conditions and the consequences, and then set to work. You will have to put yourself under discipline, to eat by rule, to aviod cakes and sweatmeats, to take exercise at the appointed hour whether you like it or no, in cold or heat; to abstain from cold drinks and from wine at your will; in a word, to give yourself over to the trainer as to a physician. Then in the conflict itself you are most likely enough to dislocate your wrist or twist your ankle, to swallow a great deall of dust, or to be severely thrashed, and, after all these things, to be defeated.
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All philosophy lies in two words Sustain and Abstain.
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All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.
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Difficulties are things that show what men are.
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What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.
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It is the action of an uninstructed person to reproach others for his own misfortune; of one entering instruction, to reproach himself; and one perfectly instructed, to reproach neither others nor himself.
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In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it.
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Who is not attracted by bright and pleasant children, to prattle, to creep, and to play with them?
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You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.
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Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
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When you close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; nay, God is within, and your genius is within. And what need have they of light to see what you are doing?
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A child understands fear, and the hurt and hate it brings.
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First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
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For it is not death or hardship that is a fearful thing, but the fear of death and hardship.
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Tell me where I can escape death: discover for me the country, show me the men to whom I must go, whom death does not visit. Discover to me a charm against death. If I have not one, what do you wish me to do? I cannot escape from death, but shall I die lamenting and trembling? . . . Therefore if I am able to change externals according to my wish, I change them: but if I cannot, I am ready to tear the eyes out of him who hinders me.
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If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase.
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Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.
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Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.
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Covetousness like jealousy, when it has taken root, never leaves a person, but with their life. Cowardice is the dread of what will happen.
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