The Classical Wisdom Tradition

"So then, you have not benefitted at all from the presence of my shadow and visible form nor from its absence. The absence is painful to you as you train yourself to flee from the body. But you could encounter me in complete purity as one both present and united to you night and day in a pure and most beautiful form of union and not as one likely to be separated from you, if you would train yourself to ascend into…

"We happened to be strolling around the temple of Cronus, looking at the many votive offerings dedicated there, when we saw set up in front of the shrine a tablet upon which was painted a strange scene. It depicted peculiar fables whose nature we were not able to fathom; ... We had been debating the meaning of this fable for sometime when an old man, who had been standing close by, said, 'Do not be astonished, my…

“Do the things external which fall upon thee distract thee? Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around. But then thou must also avoid being carried about the other way. For those too are triflers who have wearied themselves in life by their activity, and yet have no object to which to direct every movement, and, in a word, all their thoughts.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2

"Be youthful, my dear spirit; it will soon be the turn of other men, and I will be dead and black earth." Theognis, Elegiac Poems 877-878

“Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice; and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts. And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest 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…

"May one of you show himself to be such a person, so that I can say, 'Enter, young man, into what is your own, for you are destined to become an adornment to philosophy; yours are these goods, yours these books, yours these discourses.' And then, when he has labored in this fine field of study and proved his mastery, let him come back to me and say, 'I want indeed to be free from passion and disturbance of mind, but…

“Remember how long thou hast been putting off these things, and how often thou hast received an opportunity from the gods, and yet dost not use it. Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou art a part, and of what administrator of the universe thy existence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou…