The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [11]
3. But the evil of our own death is not death itself; it is the fear of death that is evil. To be free of the fear of one’s own death is to be free indeed.
4. The death of others is the true sorrow of death; and the remedies of sorrow are love, courage and time.
5. To learn how to philosophise is to learn how to bear the inevitability of loss. We desire life and are averse to death: this is the root of fearing death.
6. Remember that following desire promises the attainment of what you desire; and aversion promises the avoiding of that to which you are averse.
7. But he who fails to obtain what he desires, is disappointed; and he who suffers what he is averse to, is wretched.
8. If you are averse to sickness, or death, or poverty, you will be wretched: for death must come, and sickness and poverty may come too.
9. Remove aversion, then, from all things that are not in our control, and transfer it to things contrary to the nature of what is in our control.
10. Have regard to desire: for, if you desire any of the things which are not under your control, you must necessarily be disappointed;
11. And of those which are, and which it would be laudable to desire, do not desire them only, but pursue them.
12. Use only the appropriate actions of pursuit and avoidance; and even these lightly, and with gentleness and reservation.
13. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’
Chapter 9
1. With regard to the things that give you delight, are useful, or which you deeply love,
2. Remember to tell yourself of what general nature they are, beginning from the most insignificant things.
3. If, for example, you are fond of a specific cup, remind yourself that it is only a cup. Then, if it breaks, you will not be disturbed.
4. If you kiss your child, or your wife, say that you kiss what is human, and prepare to bear the grief that is the cost of loving, should you lose them.
5. When you are going about any action, remind yourself what nature the action is:
6. People are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.
7. Death, for instance, is not terrible, otherwise it would have appeared so to Socrates. Rather, the terror consists in our belief that death is terrible.
8. When therefore we are hindered, or disturbed, or grieved, let us never attribute the cause to others, but to ourselves; that is, to our own principles.
9. An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others.
10. Someone just starting instruction will lay the fault on himself.
11. Someone who is perfectly instructed will place blame neither on others nor on himself if it is something from outside his control,
12. But he will say: this is in the nature of things.
13. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’
Chapter 10
1. Do not be proud of any excellence that is not your own. If a horse should be proud and say, ‘I am handsome’, it would be supportable.
2. But when you are proud and say, ‘I have a handsome horse’, know that you are proud of something that belongs not to you but to the horse.
3. What, then, is your own? Only your reaction to the appearances of things.
4. Thus, when you react to how things appear in true accordance with their nature, you will be proud with reason; for you will take pride in some good of your own.
5. Consider when, on a voyage, your ship is anchored; if you go on shore to get water you may amuse yourself along the way with picking up a shellfish.
6. However, your attention must also be towards the ship, waiting for the captain to call you on board;
7. For when he does so, you must immediately leave all these things, otherwise you will miss the ship as it sails.
8. So it is with life. Whatever you find while, so to say, wandering on the beach, is fine.
9. But if necessity calls, you must run to the ship, leaving these things, and regarding none of them.
10.