a part it is of what kind of a whole, and that there is no one who
hinders thee from always doing and saying the things which are according
to the nature of which thou art a part.

10. Theophrastus, in his comparison of bad acts--such a comparison as one
would make in accordance with the common notions of mankind--says, like a
true philosopher, that the offences which are committed through desire
are more blamable than those which are committed through anger. For he
who is excited by anger seems to turn away from reason with a certain
pain and unconscious contraction; but he who offends through desire,
being overpowered by pleasure, seems to be in a manner more intemperate
and more womanish in his offences. Rightly, then, and in a way worthy of
philosophy, he said that the offence which is committed with pleasure is
more blamable than that which is committed with pain; and on the whole
the one is more like a person who has been first wronged and through pain
is compelled to be angry; but the other is moved by his own impulse to do
wrong, being carried towards doing something by desire.

11. Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very
moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from
among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the
gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or
if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in
a universe devoid of gods or devoid of providence? But in truth they do
exist, and they do care for human things, and they have put all the means
in man's power to enable him not to fall into real evils. And as to the
rest, if there was anything evil, they would have provided for this also,
that it should be altogether in a man's power not to fall into it. Now
that which does not make a man worse, how can it make a man's life worse?
But neither through ignorance, nor having the knowledge but not the power