Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.

Love only what befalls you and is spun for you by fate.

Always run to the short way; and the short way is the natural: accordingly say and do everything in conformity with the soundest reason. For such a purpose frees a man from trouble, and warfare, and all artifice and ostentatious display.

Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too - ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring earth.

Do not act as if you had a thousand years to live.

Withdraw to the untroubled quietude deep within the soul, and refresh yourself.

You should banish any thoughts of how you may appear to others.