The praise is not in the deed but in the way it is done. To be master of one’s self is the greatest mastery. One cause of the evils of our time is that we live after the example of others. We are not guided by reason but led astray by custom. Money never made anybody rich. Why did God create the world? He is good; a good being feels no aversion to anything that is good. Therefore He made the world as good as possible. _Quoted from Plato._ Some of our time is filched from us, some is stolen outright, some passes unnoticed. But most reprehensible of all things is to lose it by mere negligence; and if you will note carefully, men spend a great part of life in doing evil, the greatest part in doing nothing the whole of it doing something else than they ought. Whom will you name that places any value on time? Who prizes a day? Who realizes that he is dying daily? For we err when we regard death as something in the future; a great part of it has already passed; the portion of our life that is behind us, death holds. Do, therefore, Lucilius, what you write that you are doing, husband every hour; you will be less dependent upon to-morrow if you seize to-day. Everything else belongs to others, time only is ours. There is a great difference between not wanting to sin and not knowing how. If thou wouldst get rid of thy vices keep out of bad company. He worships God who knows Him. No one commits wrongs for himself alone; he communicates them to others and is in turn led astray by others. Our minds are dazzled when they look upon truth. No virtue remains hidden, and it suffers no damage by having been hidden. Nature has given to all the fundamental principles and seeds of virtue. Nature does not make us virtuous; it is an art to become good. If what you are doing is right, all men may know it. The reward of all the virtues is in the virtues themselves. The recompense of a good deed is to have done it. Virtue alone brings lasting and sure happiness. He errs who thinks the gods intentionally inflict injuries on any one; they cannot do so; they can neither receive nor do injury. So live with men as if God saw thee; so talk with God as if men heard thee. God has no need of ministering servants: He Himself ministers to men; is present everywhere and in everything. The gods extend a helping hand to those who would rise. Do you wonder that man goes to the gods? God comes to men, and what is more, He comes into men. No mind is good without God. All men, if they are traced to their first origin, are from the gods. Every day, every hour, reminds us of our nothingness and, by some fresh admonition, warns those of their frailty who are prone to forget it. Give heed to each day as if it were your whole life. Nothing will so much enable you to exercise control over yourself in all things as to think often of the uncertainty and brevity of life.