1Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.
2But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me — not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity.
3I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him.
4Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.
5But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of Providence?
6But in truth they do exist, and they do care for human things, and they have put all the means in man’s power to enable him not to fall into real evils.
7Do every act of thy life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to thee.
8How few are the things that a man needs in order to live a happy and godly life! For he who has observed these few things will require nothing more, even from the gods themselves.
9Let it not be in any man’s power to say truly of thee that thou art not simple, or that thou art not good.
10Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
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