forfeit nothing. If the smoke makes me cough, I can leave.
What’s so hard about that?
Until things reach that point, I’m free. No one can keep me
from doing what I want. And I want what is proper to
rational beings, living together.
- The world’s intelligence is not selfish.
It created lower things for the sake of higher ones, and
attuned the higher ones to one another. Look how it
subordinates, how it connects, how it assigns each thing what
each deserves, and brings the better things into alignment.
- How have you behaved to the gods, to your parents, to
your siblings, to your wife, to your children, to your teachers,
to your nurses, to your friends, to your relatives, to your
slaves? Have they all had from you nothing “wrong and
unworthy, either word or deed”?
Consider all that you’ve gone through, all that you’ve
survived. And that the story of your life is done, your
assignment complete. How many good things have you seen?
How much pain and pleasure have you resisted? How many
honors have you declined? How many unkind people have
you been kind to?
- Why do other souls—unskilled, untrained—disturb the