Begin the morning by saying to yourself: today I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, the arrogant, the deceitful, the envious and the unsocial.

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  Throw away the thought of how you shall seem to others, and be content if you live the rest of your life as your nature wills.

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  Do not despise death, but be content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills.

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  All those things which you wish to reach by a roundabout road, you can have now, if you do not refuse them to yourself.

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  Men seek retreats for themselves, in the country, by the sea, in the mountains; and you too are wont to long for such places. But this is altogether naive, for you can retire into yourself whenever you choose.

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  Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

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  Let every act, word and thought of yours be such as if you might depart from life this very moment.

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