Golden Sayings   

applied, then the lust is checked, and the mind at once regains
its original authority; whereas if you have recourse to no
remedy, you can no longer look for this return--on the contrary,
the next time it is excited by the corresponding object, the
flame of desire leaps up more quickly than before. By frequent
repetition, the mind in the long run becomes callous; and thus
this mental disease produces confirmed Avarice.
One who has had fever, even when it has left him, is not in
the same condition of health as before, unless indeed his cure is
complete. Something of the same sort is true also of diseases of
the mind. Behind, there remains a legacy of traces and blisters:
and unless these are effectually erased, subsequent blows on the
same spot will produce no longer mere blisters, but sores. If you
do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it
nothing which may tend its increase. At first, keep quiet and
count the days when you were not angry: "I used to be angry every
day, then every other day: next every two, next every three
days!" and if you succeed in passing thirty days, sacrifice to
the Gods in thanksgiving.

LXXVI

How then may this be attained?--Resolve, now if never
before, to approve thyself to thyself; resolve to show thyself
fair in God's sight; long to be pure with thine own pure self and
God!

LXXVII

That is the true athlete, that trains himself to resist such
outward impressions as these.
"Stay, wretched man! suffer not thyself to be carried away!"
Great is the combat, divine the task! you are fighting for
Kingship, for Liberty, for Happiness, for Tranquillity. Remember
God: call upon Him to aid thee, like a comrade that stands beside
thee in the fight.

LXXVIII

Who then is a Stoic--in the sense that we call a statue of
Phidias which is modelled after that master's art? Show me a man
in this sense modelled after the doctrines that are ever upon his
lips. Show me a man that is sick--and happy; an exile--and happy;
in evil report--and happy! Show me him, I ask again. So help me
Heaven, I long to see one Stoic! Nay, if you cannot show me one
fully modelled, let me at least see one in whom the process is at
work--one whose bent is in that direction. Do me that favour!
Grudge it not to an old man, to behold a sight he has never yet
beheld. Think you I wish to see the Zeus or Athena of Phidias,
bedecked with gold and ivory?--Nay, show me, one of you, a human