Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life, - there, if one must speak out, the real man.

Let thy chief fort and place of defense be a mind free from passions. A stronger place and better fortified than this, hath no man.

A man should be upright, not kept upright.

The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around. That's all you need to know.

So you know how things stand. Now forget what they think of you. Be satisfied if you can live the rest of your life, however short, as your nature demands. Focus on that, and don't let anything distract you. You've wandered all over and finally realized that you never found what you were after: how to live. Not in syllogisms, not in money, or fame, or self-indulgence. Nowhere.

Stop whatever you're doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won't be able to do this anymore?

At day's first light have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that "I am rising for the work of man."