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“A glorious manner to welcome life and death, good and evil!”
Do not seek comfort in your own strength when you face what comes. Look instead at the soldier who hopes to rule and finds only chains. If you wish to be truly free, abandon the hope of command and accept the yoke willingly.
“Sincere against their honour, and dying for it; this has no example in the world, and no root in nature.”
“Show me the merit whereby you have charmed these persons, and I also will esteem you.”
I once sat in a salon where a man spoke of his own virtue with a loudness that made my ears ache. He told me he was admired by the great, yet when I asked which great man had spoken well of him, he named none but those who knew only his face. It is a vanity to parade others’ approval as if it were our own substance. We mistake…
“And if they had been entirely destroyed, we should have no witnesses at all.”
I sought a faith so clear it required no doubt, yet found that certainty often destroys the very truth it claims to serve. When I tried to erase all ambiguity from my own heart, I lost the only sign of God remaining to me. The destruction of witnesses leaves a void where belief used to stand.
“It is dangerous to make man see too clearly his equality with the brutes without showing him his greatness.”
Do not flee from your lowly state, nor swell with pride before you know your wretchedness. Look at both sides of your nature, for only in that balance can you find a truth that saves you from despair or arrogance.
“What use will memory be to me, if it can alike hurt and help me, and all depends upon the blessing of God?”
You seek to carry your past into this day as a trophy, but I warn you that what serves you today may poison you tomorrow. Do not trust in the weight of your own deeds; ask only for His rule to govern them now. Turn from your ledger and look to Him before the sun sets.
“They feel that they have no strength in themselves; that they are incapable of coming to God; and that if God does not come to them, they can have no communion with Him.”
I once tried to climb the mountain alone, believing my own will could reach the summit without aid. My legs trembled until I fell into the dust, realizing my effort was merely a pretense of strength. The…
“Pride counterbalances and takes away all miseries.”
I once watched a man at a banquet who had lost his fortune and his health. He spoke of these losses with such fierce pride that he seemed to have gained them. He believed his suffering proved his nobility, yet it only served to mask the void within him. We all do this; we turn our wretchedness into a badge of honor to avoid looking at the truth. The monster…
“What the Stoics propose is so difficult and foolish!”
I have watched men try to cure their wretchedness by pretending it does not exist. They speak of a sovereign good that makes one content with oneself, yet they advise suicide when the world fails to please them. This is a contradiction born of pride. They would rather be gods than men, and when they cannot achieve this impossible height, they call themselves fools. I saw this in those who…
