Correct Living
Begin your day with this reflection: I shall meet the meddler, the ingrate, the scorner, the envious one, the cynic. Yet these men are thus because they know not how to distinguish between good and evil. But I, who am able to discern the quality of goodness, that it is beautiful, and of evil, that it is loathsome, know also the real being of the wrong-doer that he is kindred to me; not kindred in blood or race, but partaker in intelligence and part also of the Divine.
None of these men can harm me, for none of these can force upon me the evil that I hate. I cannot, then, be angry with my kinsmen nor scorn them. For we are all made to work together, like feet, hands, eyelids, the rows of the upper and lower teeth. Not to work together, therefore, is against nature. And to be vexed with and scorn one another is to strive against one another.
Our life is but a point in time; our bodies hasten to their decreed decay; the future is a mystery, and glory is vanity. Life itself is a battle, or the sojourn of a traveler. What, then, shall guide man aright? One thing, and one thing alone—the love of wisdom. And this is wisdom to keep the Divine spirit within us serene, undefiled, high above pleasure and pain; acting always thoughtfully, simply, sincerely; not dependent upon another man’s action or inaction; accepting all that befalls us or is decreed unto us as coming thence whence we ourselves have come.
Be always doing something serviceable to mankind, and let this constant generosity be your only pleasure, not forgetting in the meantime a due regard to the Deity.
—Marcus Aurelius Antonius.
Spiritual Rivalry
Be good at the depths of you, and you will discover that those who surround you will be good even to the same depths. Therein lies a force that has no name; a spiritual rivalry that has no resistance.
—Maurice Maeterlinck.