All is change. You yourself are continuously changing and being destroyed bit by bit. So is the whole universe.

Use the setback to practice other virtues.

To my soul: Are you ever going to achieve goodness? Ever going to be simple, whole and naked--as plain to see as the body that contains you?

Whatever anyone does or says, I must be a good man. It is as if an emerald, or gold or purple, were always saying: 'Whatever anyone does or says, I must be an emerald and keep my own colour.

It is not fit that I should give myself pain, for I have never intentionally given pain even to another.

Is an emerald suddenly flawed if no one admires it?

This thing, what is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its substance and material?

To stand up straight — not straightened

Don’t be anxious. Nature controls it all. And before long you’ll be no one, nowhere.