55. Do not look around thee to discover other men's ruling principles,
but look straight to this, to what nature leads thee, both the universal
nature through the things which happen to thee, and thy own nature
through the acts which must be done by thee. But every being ought to do
that which is according to its constitution; and all other things have
been constituted for the sake of rational beings, just as among
irrational things the inferior for the sake of the superior, but the
rational for the sake of one another.

The prime principle then in man's constitution is the social. And the
second is not to yield to the persuasions of the body,--for it is the
peculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion to circumscribe
itself, and never to be overpowered either by the motion of the senses or
of the appetites, for both are animal; but the intelligent motion claims
superiority, and does not permit itself to be overpowered by the others.
And with good reason, for it is formed by nature to use all of them. The
third thing in the rational constitution is freedom from error and from
deception. Let then the ruling principle holding fast to these things go
straight on, and it has what is its own.

56. Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the
present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is allowed
thee.

57. Love that only which happens to thee and is spun with the thread of
thy destiny. For what is more suitable?

58. In everything which happens keep before thy eyes those to whom the
same things happened, and how they were vexed, and treated them as
strange things, and found fault with them: and now where are they?