and from all manner of discontent, either in regard of the gods or men.
For indeed whatsoever proceeds from the gods, deserves respect
for their worth and excellency; and whatsoever proceeds from men,
as they are our kinsmen, should by us be entertained,
with love, always; sometimes, as proceeding from their ignorance,
of that which is truly good and bad, (a blindness no less, than that
by which we are not able to discern between white and black:)
with a kind of pity and compassion also.

XII. If thou shouldst live three thousand, or as many as ten
thousands of years, yet remember this, that man can part
with no life properly, save with that little part of life,
which he now lives: and that which he lives, is no other,
than that which at every instant he parts with. That then
which is longest of duration, and that which is shortest,
come both to one effect. For although in regard of that which
is already past there may be some inequality, yet that time
which is now present and in being, is equal unto all men.
And that being it which we part with whensoever we die,
it doth manifestly appear, that it can be but a moment of time,
that we then part with. For as for that which is either past
or to come, a man cannot be said properly to part with it.
For how should a man part with that which he hath not?
These two things therefore thou must remember.
First, that all things in the world from all eternity,
by a perpetual revolution of the same times and things
ever continued and renewed, are of one kind and nature;
so that whether for a hundred or two hundred years only,
or for an infinite space of time, a man see those things
which are still the same, it can be no matter of great moment.