book iii
. chap. 2._
This phrase, "No man is a hero to his valet," is commonly attributed to Madame de Sévigné, but on the authority of Madame Aissé (Letters, edited by Jules Ravenal, 1853) it really belongs to Madame Cornuel.
[740-5] See Heywood, page 15.
[741-1] Though this may be play to you, 'T is death to us.
ROGER L' ESTRANGE: _Fables from Several Authors. Fable 398._
[742-1] See Pope, page 325.
EPICTETUS. _Circa_ 60 A. D.
(_The translation used here is that of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, based on that of Elizabeth Carter_ (1866).)
To a reasonable creature, that alone is insupportable which is unreasonable; but everything reasonable may be supported.
_Discourses. Chap. ii._
Yet God hath not only granted these faculties, by which we may bear every event without being depressed or broken by it, but like a good prince and a true father, hath placed their exercise above restraint, compulsion, or hindrance, and wholly without our own control.
_Discourses. Chap. vi._
In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.
_Discourses. Chap. xi._
Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.
_Discourses. Chap. xii._
O slavish man! will you not bear with your own brother, who has God for his Father, as being a son from the same stock, and of the same high descent? But if you chance to be placed in some superior station, will you presently set yourself up for a tyrant?
_Discourses. Chap. xiii._
When you have shut your doors, and darkened your room, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; but God is within, and your genius is within,--and what need have they of light to see what you are doing?
_Discourses. Chap. xiv._
No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
_Discourses. Chap. xv._
Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.
_Discourses. Chap. xvi._
Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan.
_Discourses. Chap. xvi._
Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.
_Discourses. Chap. xvii._
If what the philosophers say be true,--that all men's actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain,--so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.
_Discourses. Chap. xviii._
Practise yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.
_Discourses. Chap. xviii._
Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects.
_Discourses. Chap. xx._
Why, then, do you walk as if you had swallowed a ramrod?
_Discourses. Chap. xxi._
When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals. What would you have, O man?
_Discourses. Chap. xxi._
Difficulties are things that show what men are.
_Discourses. Chap. xxiv._
If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled?
_Discourses. Chap. xxv._
In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.
_Discourses. Chap. xxvi._
Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task.
_Discourses. Chap. xxvii._
The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every
## action to man.
_That we ought not to be angry with Mankind. Chap. xxviii._
The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.
_Of Courage. Chap. xxix._
It is not reasonings that are wanted now; for there are books stuffed full of stoical reasonings.
_Of Courage. Chap. xxix._
For what constitutes a child?--Ignorance. What constitutes a child?--Want of instruction; for they are our equals so far as their degree of knowledge permits.
_That Courage is not inconsistent with Caution. Book ii . Chap. i._
Appear to know only this,--never to fail nor fall.
_That Courage is not inconsistent with Caution.