Either be silent, or speak words better than silence. It is hard to take many paths in life at the same time. Youth should be accustomed to obedience, for it will thus find it easy to obey the authority of reason. Men should associate with one another in such a way as not to make their friends enemies, but to make their enemies friends. We ought to wage war only against the ignorance of the mind, the passions of the heart, the distempers of the body, sedition in cities, and ill-will in families. No man should deem anything _exclusively_ his own. Every man ought so to train himself as to be worthy of belief without an oath. He used to call admonishing, "feeding storks." Philosophers are seekers after truth. The discourse of a philosopher is vain, if no passion of man is healed thereby. Choose the best life; use will make it pleasant. Man is at his best when he visits the temples of the gods. A man should never pray for anything for himself, because he is ignorant of what is really good for him. Do not the least thing unadvisedly. Advise before you act, and never let your eyes The sweet refreshings of soft slumber taste, Till you have thence severe reflections passed On th' actions of the day from first to last. Wherein have I transgressed? What done have I? What duty unperformed have I passed by? And if your actions ill on search you find, Let grief, if good, let joy, possess your mind. This do, this think, to this your heart incline, This way will lead you to the Life Divine. * * * * * This course, if you observe, you shall know then The constitution both of gods and men. And now from ill, Great Father, set us free, Or teach us all to know ourselves in Thee. The noblest gifts of heaven to man are to speak the truth and to do good. These two things resemble the works of the Deity. Place intuition as the best charioteer or guide for thy acts. Possess not treasures except those things which no one can take from you. Be sleepless in the things of the Spirit, for sleep in them is akin to death. Each of us is a soul, not a body, which is only a possession of the soul. The tyrant death securely shalt thou brave, And scorn the dark dominion of the grave. The greatest honor which can be paid to the Deity is to know and imitate Its perfection. The wise men say that one community embraces heaven and earth, and gods and men and friendship and order and temperance and righteousness; for which reason they call this whole a kosmos or orderly universe. Of all things learn to revere your _Self_. Likeness to the Deity should be the aim of all our endeavors. The nobler, the better the man, the more godlike he becomes, for the gods are the guardians and guides of men. There is a relationship between men and gods, because men partake of the Divine Principle.