Golden Sayings   

It is hard to combine and unite these two qualities, the
carefulness of one who is affected by circumstances, and the
intrepidity of one who heeds them not. But it is not impossible:
else were happiness also impossible. We should act as we do in
seafaring.
"What can I do?"--Choose the master, the crew, the day, the
opportunity. Then comes a sudden storm. What matters it to me? my
part has been fully done. The matter is in the hands of another--
the Master of the ship. The ship is foundering. What then have I
to do? I do the only thing that remains to me--to be drowned
without fear, without a cry, without upbraiding God, but knowing
that what has been born must likewise perish. For I am not
Eternity, but a human being--a part of the whole, as an hour is
part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour
must pass!

CLXXXVII

And now we are sending you to Rome to spy out the land; but
none send a coward as such a spy, that, if he hear but a noise
and see a shadow moving anywhere, loses his wits and comes flying
to say, The enemy are upon us!
So if you go now, and come and tell us: "Everything at Rome
is terrible: Death is terrible, Exile is terrible, Slander is
terrible, Want is terrible; fly, comrades! the enemy are upon
us!" we shall reply, Get you gone, and prophesy to yourself! we
have but erred in sending such a spy as you. Diogenes, who was
sent as a spy long before you, brought us back another report
than this. He says that Death is no evil; for it need not even
bring shame with it. He says that Fame is but the empty noise of
madmen. And what report did this spy bring us of Pain, what of
Pleasure, what of Want? That to be clothed in sackcloth is better
than any purple robe; that sleeping on the bare ground is the
softest couch; and in proof of each assertion he points to his
own courage, constancy, and freedom; to his own healthy and
muscular frame. "There is no enemy near," he cries, "all is
perfect peace!"

CLXXXVIII

If a man has this peace--not the peace proclaimed by Caesar
(how indeed should he have it to proclaim?), nay, but the peace
proclaimed by God through reason, will not that suffice him when
alone, when he beholds and reflects:--Now can no evil happen unto
me; for me there is no robber, for me no earthquake; all things
are full of peace, full of tranquillity; neither highway nor city
nor gathering of men, neither neighbor nor comrade can do me
hurt. Another supplies my food, whose care it is; another my
raiment; another hath given me perceptions of sense and primary