My Virtual Reading Room

Mindful, therefore, of this ordaining we should go to receive instruction, not in order to change the constitution of things,--for this is neither vouchsafed us nor is it better that it should be,--but in order that, things about us being as they are and as their nature is, we may, for our own part, keep our wills in harmony with what happens.

For, look you, can we escape from men? And how is it possible? But can we, if they associate with us, change them?  And who vouchsafes us that power?  What alternative remains, then, or what method can we find for living with them?

Some such method as that, while they will act as it seems best to them, we shall none the less be in a state comfortable to nature.  But if you are impatient and peevish, and if you are alone, you call it a solitude, but if you are in the company of men, you call them schemers and brigands, and you find fault even with your own parents and children and brothers and neighbours.  But you ought, when staying alone, to call that peace and freedom, and to look upon yourself as like the gods; and when you are in the company of many, you ought not to call that a mob, nor a tumult, nor a disgusting thing, but a feast and a festival, and so accept all things contentedly.

What, then is the punishment of those who do not accept?  To be just as they are.  Is one peevish because he is alone? Let him be in solitude! Is he peevish with his parents? Let him be an evil son and grieve! Is he peevish with his children? Let him be a bad father! "Throw him into prison." What sort of prison? Where he now is.