Practise, then, from the very beginning to say to every disagreeable impression, ‘You’re an impression and not at all what you appear to be.’ Then examine it and test it by these rules that you possess, and first and foremost by this one, whether the impression relates to those things that are within our power, or those that aren’t within our power

‘Where things that lie outside the sphere of choice are concerned, there you should act with confidence, but when it comes to things within the sphere of choice, there you should act with caution’?

Desolation is the condition of someone who is bereft of help. For

where no journey is required and you already have the works in front of you, have you no desire, then, to view them and to understand them?

For not everything that is difficult or dangerous is suitable for training, but only what will contribute to our achieving the object of our strivings.

if we place the good in right choice, the preservation of our relationships itself becomes a good.

The signs of one who is making progress are that he criticizes no one, praises no one, blames or accuses no one, and never speaks of himself as being anyone of importance, or as one who has any knowledge. And if he is praised, he laughs within at the person who is praising him, and if anyone finds fault with him, he makes no defence. He goes about

Do you seek any greater reward for a good person than that of accomplishing what is virtuous and right?

What is it that is lacking, then? Someone to put them into practice, someone to bear witness to the arguments in his actions. [57] Take up this task for me, so that in the school we may no longer have to appeal to examples from long ago, but may also have some example from our own time.