Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our...

He also appointed Otanes to command the forces stationed along the coast. The father of this Otanes was Sisamnes, one of the royal...

At the end of the week the machinery was stopped and we “cleaned up.” That is to say, we got the pulp out of the pans and batteries, and washed the mud patiently away till nothing was left but the long accumulating mass of quicksilver, with its imprisoned treasures. This we made into heavy, compact snow-balls, and piled them up in a bright, luxurious heap for inspection. Making these snow-balls cost me a fine gold ring—that and ignorance together; for the quicksilver invaded

Darius, like Hammurabi, laid special weight on the rules for evidence. Like his predecessors, he insisted on the incorruptibility of the royal judges. Herodotus has a tale in point. One judge, Sisamnes, had given an unjust judgment in return for a bribe; Cambyses slaughtered him like a sheep and flayed him. Then from the skin he caused leather strips to be tanned and with them covered the judgment seat of the son Otanes, who was appointed to the father's office with the grim

For this reason we ought not to cast out poverty, but only our judgement about poverty, and so we shall be serene.

It is chiefly with this principle in mind that a man must exercise himself. Go out of the house at early dawn, and no matter whom you see or whom you hear, examine him and then answer as you would to a question. What did you see? A handsome man or a handsome woman? Apply your rule. Is it outside the province of the moral purpose, or inside? Outside. Away with it. What did you see? A man in grief over the death of his child? Apply your rule. Death lies outside the province of

Epictetus, "Children, indeed, when they cry a little because their nurse has left, forget their troubles as soon as they get a cookie. Would you, therefore, have us resemble children? No, by Zeus! For I claim that we should be influenced in this way, not by a cookie, but by true judgements. And what are these? The things which a man ought to practice all day long, without being devoted to what is not his own, either comrade, or place, or gymnasia, nay, not even to his own bo

Epictetus, "Why, then, do we wonder any longer that, although in material things we are thoroughly experienced, nevertheless in our actions we are dejected, unseemly, worthless, cowardly, unwilling to stand the strain, utter failures one and all? For we have not troubled ourselves about these matters in time past, nor do we even now practice them. Yet if we were afraid, not of death or exile, but of fear itself, then we should practice how not to encounter those things that a

Epictetus, “For this is why I cannot be sufficiently astonished at what men do. In a case where we wish to judge of weights, we do not judge at haphazard; where we wish to judge what is straight and what is crooked, we do not judge at haphazard; in short, where it makes any difference to us to know the truth in the case, no one of us will do anything at haphazard. Yet where there is involved the first and only cause of acting aright or erring, of prosperity or adversity, of f

…that it is not right to punish anyone in anger – even a slave, since masters who are angry often themselves suffer greater evils than they inflict on their servants. And it is a complete and utter mistake to attack an enemy with anger rather than with judgment. For anger acts without foresight, whereas judgment has in view a way to harm one’s enemy without suffering any hurt from him in return.