perhaps it might be chance alone which at first determined the selection;
for in this way, if they do not exactly reach the point they desire, they
will come at least in the end to some place that will probably be
preferable to the middle of a forest. In the same way, since in action it
frequently happens that no delay is permissible, it is very certain that,
when it is not in our power to determine what is true, we ought to act
according to what is most probable; and even although we should not remark
a greater probability in one opinion than in another, we ought
notwithstanding to choose one or the other, and afterwards consider it, in
so far as it relates to practice, as no longer dubious, but manifestly
true and certain, since the reason by which our choice has been
determined is itself possessed of these qualities. This principle was
sufficient thenceforward to rid me of all those repentings and pangs of
remorse that usually disturb the consciences of such feeble and uncertain
minds as, destitute of any clear and determinate principle of choice,
allow themselves one day to adopt a course of action as the best, which
they abandon the next, as the opposite.

My third maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than
fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world, and in
general, accustom myself to the persuasion that, except our own thoughts,
there is nothing absolutely in our power; so that when we have done our
best in things external to us, all wherein we fail of success is to be
held, as regards us, absolutely impossible: and this single principle
seemed to me sufficient to prevent me from desiring for the future
anything which I could not obtain, and thus render me contented; for since
our will naturally seeks those objects alone which the understanding
represents as in some way possible of attainment, it is plain, that if we
consider all external goods as equally beyond our power, we shall no more
regret the absence of such goods as seem due to our birth, when deprived