10. From Alexander the grammarian: to refrain from correcting people, nor admonish those who mispronounce, misremember, or utter an odd expression. He would simply debate the thing they meant to say or provide an answer, while at times dexterously producing the very expression the person sought to begin with.

For nowhere is quieter or freer from trouble than one’s own soul.

Which means keeping the powerful voice within us secure and free from violence, rising above our pains and pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose, and never falsely or hypocritically. It means not judging another for what they do or don’t do, and accepting all that happens in the space and time you’ve been allotted. It means welcoming death

for every artform aims to follow its own design.

But there are limits, just as there are to eating and drinking. But you push these boundaries, too, don’t you. Yet you don’t push the boundaries of your work...odd.

—But what is better than what I’m already doing? Isn’t this how pleasure deceives us? Wouldn’t you rather seek out generosity, freedom, simplicity, equanimity, and piety? What is more preferable than wisdom itself, when considering that any secure, happy life relies on knowledge and understanding?

So should you trust in the perfecting accomplishments of nature, accepting what happens, even if you find it disagreeable, because it stems from a healthy universe.

Plagued by headaches, he’d later rise refreshed and vigorous, going about his day.

Recall how long you’ve been putting off these things, how often you have received an opportunity from the gods and yet did nothing. You must finally accept that you are part of the universe, one with a grand administrator, the spring to your small stream. You have a limited, fixed time here, and if you fail to clear the clouds from your mind, it