with even the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it
all as unimportant.
Who can change their minds? And without that change,
what is there but groaning, slavery, a pretense of obedience?
Go on and cite Alexander, Philip, Demetrius of Phalerum.
Whether they knew nature’s will and made themselves its
student is for them to say. And if they preferred to play the
king? Well, no one forced me to be their understudy.
The task of philosophy is modest and straightforward.
Don’t tempt me to presumption.
- To see them from above: the thousands of animal herds,
the rituals, the voyages on calm or stormy seas, the different
ways we come into the world, share it with one another, and
leave it. Consider the lives led once by others, long ago, the
lives to be led by others after you, the lives led even now, in
foreign lands. How many people don’t even know your name.
How many will soon have forgotten it. How many offer you
praise now—and tomorrow, perhaps, contempt.
That to be remembered is worthless. Like fame. Like
everything.
- Indifference to external events.
And a commitment to justice in your own acts.