There is no man to whom a good mind comes before an evil one. It is the evil mind that gets first hold on all of us. Learning virtue means unlearning vice. We should therefore proceed to the task of freeing ourselves from faults with all the more courage because, when once committed to us, the good is an everlasting possession; virtue is not unlearned.
St James the Greater
James, the son of Zebedee, was a fisherman called, along with his brother John, to be “fishers of men”. He and his sibling were known as “Sons of Thunders”, perhaps for their fiery tempers; the two wanted Jesus to rain down fire on Samaria and quarrelled about who would be greater in Heaven. He was one of three disciples to witness the Transfiguration and saw other of Christ’s miracles. He is reputed to be the first of the apostles to have been martyred, murdered in 44 by the orders of Herod Agrippa (though some say Herod himself did the dirty deed.)
His relics have a fabled history of their own. Legend says they were taken to Spain in a rudderless boat guided by angels. There they were discovered at Compostela in 813 by a shepherd who reported his findings to the local bishop; a cathedral was built over the tomb. Spanish Christians believe that in a medieval battle with the Muslims occupying the country, the spirit of James appeared, riding a white horse, to lead his coreligionists to victory. As a consequence, the saint became known as Santiago Matamoros, “Saint James the Moor-Slayer” (see the image above). Compostela became one of the great pilgrim destinations.
James is the patron saint of Spain, pilgrims (who wear his cockleshell badge), those suffering from rheumatism and arthritis, soldiers, druggists and Seattle.
I do not think that an old fellow like me need have been sitting here to try and prevent your entertaining abject notions of yourselves, and talking of yourselves in an abject and ignoble way: but to prevent there being by chance among you any such young men as, after recognising their kindred to the Gods, and their bondage in these chains of the body and its manifold necessities, should desire to cast them off as burdens too grievous to be borne, and depart their true kindred. This is the struggle in which your Master and Teacher, were he worthy of the name, should be engaged. You would come to me and say: "Epictetus, we can no longer endure being chained to this wretched body, giving food and drink and rest and purification: aye, and for its sake forced to be subservient to this man and that. Are these not things indifferent and nothing to us? Is it not true that death is no evil? Are we not in a manner kinsmen of the Gods, and have we not come from them? Let us depart thither, whence we came: let us be freed from these chains that confine and press us down. Here are thieves and robbers and tribunals: and they that are called tyrants, who deem that they have after a fashion power over us, because of the miserable body and what appertains to it. Let us show them that they have power over none." And to this I reply:-- "Friends, wait for God. When He gives the signal, and releases you from this service, then depart to Him. But for the present, endure to dwell in the place wherein He hath assigned you your post. Short indeed is the time of your habitation therein, and easy to those that are minded. What tyrant, what robber, what tribunals have any terrors for those who thus esteem the body and all that belong to it as of no account? Stay; depart not rashly hence!" - Epictetus
Cicero declared that if the number of his days were doubled, he should still not have time to read the lyric poets … What am I to do? Death is on my trail, and life is fleeting away; teach me something with which to face these troubles. Bring it to pass that I shall cease trying to escape from death, and that life may cease to escape from me.
Give me courage to meet hardships; make me calm in the face of the unavoidable.
Relax the straitened limits of the time which is allotted me. Show me that the good in life does not depend upon life’s length, but upon the use we make of it; also, that it is possible, or rather usual, for a man who has lived long to have lived too little.
– Seneca
The other day I had an iron lamp placed beside my household gods. I heard a noise at the door and on hastening down found my lamp carried off. I reflected that the culprit was in no very strange case. "Tomorrow, my friend," I said, "you will find an earthenware lamp; for a man can only lose what he has." The reason why I lost my lamp was that the thief was superior to me in vigilance. He paid however this price for the lamp, that in exchange for it he consented to become a thief: in exchange for it, to become faithless. - Epictetus
But I have one whom I must please, to whom I must be subject, whom I must obey:--God, and those who come next to Him. He hath entrusted me with myself: He hath made my will subject to myself alone and given me rules for the right use thereof. - Epictetus
“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” – Marcus Aurelius
“I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.”
– Cato
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
– Epictetus
“We all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”
– Marcus Aurelius