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1. Request not of Divinity such things as, when obtained, you cannot
preserve; for
no gift of Divinity can ever be taken away; and on this
account he does not confer that which you are unable to retain.
2. Be vigilant in your intellectual part; for sleep about this has an
affinity with real death.
3. Divinity sends evil to men, not as being influenced by anger, but
for the sake of purification; for anger is foreign from Divinity, since
it arises from circumstances taking place contrary to the will; but
nothing contrary to the will can happen to a god.
4. When you deliberate whether or not you shall injure another, you
will previously suffer the evil yourself which you intend to commit. But
neither must you expect any good from the evil; for the manners of
everyone are correspondent to his life and actions. Every soul too is a
repository, that which is good, of things good, that which is evil, of
things depraved.
5. After long consultation, engage either in speaking or acting; for
you have not the ability to recall either your words or deeds.
6. Divinity does not principally esteem the tongue, but the deeds of
the wise; for a wise man, even when he is silent, honours Divinity.
7. A loquacious and ignorant man both in prayer and sacrifice
contaminates a divine nature. The wise man therefore is
alone a priest, is alone a friend of Divinity and only knows how to
pray.
8. The wise man being sent hither naked, should naked invoke him by
whom he was sent; for he alone is heard by Divinity, who is not burdened
with foreign concerns.
9. It is impossible to receive from Divinity any gift greater than
virtue. 1
10. Gifts and victims confer no honour on Divinity, nor is he adorned
with offerings suspended in temples; but a soul divinely inspired
solidly conjoins us with Divinity; for it is necessary that like should
approach to like.
11. It is more painful to be subservient to passions than to tyrants.
12. It is better to converse more with yourself than others.
13. If you are always careful to remember that in whatever place
either your soul or body accomplishes any deed, Divinity is present as
an inspector of your conduct; in all your words and actions you will
venerate the presence of an inspector from whom nothing can be
concealed, and will, at the same time, possess Divinity as an intimate
associate.
14. Believe that you are furious and insane in proportion as you are
ignorant of yourself.
15. It is necessary to search for those wives and children which will
remain after a liberation from the present life.
16. The self-sufficient and needy philosopher lives a life truly
similar to Divinity, and considers the non-possession of external and
unnecessary goods as the greatest wealth. For the acquisition of riches
sometimes inflames desire; but not to act in any respect unjustly is
sufficient to the enjoyment of a blessed life.
17. True goods are never produced by indolent habits.
18. Esteem that to be eminently good, which, communicated to another,
will be increased to yourself. 1
19. Esteem those to be eminently your friends, who assist your soul
rather than your body.
20. Consider both the praise and reproach of every foolish person as
ridiculous, and the whole life of an ignorant man as a disgrace.
21. Endeavour that your familiars may reverence rather than fear you;
for love attends upon reverence, but hatred upon fear.
22. The sacrifices of fools are the aliment of the fire; but the
offerings which they suspend in temples are the supplies of the
sacrilegious.
23. Understand that no dissimulation can be long concealed.
24. The unjust man suffers greater evil while his soul is tormented
with a consciousness of guilt, than when his body is scourged with
whips.
25. It is by no means safe to discourse concerning Divinity with men
of false opinions; for the danger is equally great in speaking to such
as these, things either fallacious or true.
26. By everywhere using reason as your guide, you will avoid the
commission of crimes.
27. By being troublesome to others, you will not easily escape
molestation yourself.
28. Consider that as great erudition, through which you are able to
bear the want of erudition, in the ignorant.
29. He who is depraved does not listen to the divine law, and on this
account lives without law.
30. A just man who is a stranger, is not only superior to a citizen,
but is even more excellent than a relation.
31. As many passions of the soul, so many fierce and savage despots.
32. No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself.
33. Labour, together with continence, precedes the acquisition of
every good.
34. Be persuaded that those things are not your riches which you do
not possess in the penetralia of the reasoning powers.
35. Do that which you judge to be beautiful and honest, though you
should acquire no glory from the performance; for the vulgar is a
depraved judge of beautiful deeds.
36. Make trial of a man rather from his deeds than his discourses;
for many live badly and speak well.
37. Perform great things, at the same time promising nothing great.
38. Since the roots of our nature are established in Divinity, from
which also we are produced, we should tenaciously adhere to our root;
for streams also of water, and other offspring of the earth, when their
roots are cut off, become rotten and dry.
39. The strength of the soul is temperance; for this is the light of
a soul destitute of passions; but it is much better to die than to
darken the soul through the intemperance of the body.
40. You cannot easily denominate that man happy who depends either on
his friends or children, or on any fleeting and fallen nature; for all
these are unstable and uncertain; but to depend on oneself and on
Divinity is alone stable and firm.
41. He is a wise man, and beloved of Divinity, who studies how to
labour for the good of his soul, as much as others labour for the sake
of the body.
42. Yield all things to their kindred and ruling nature except
liberty.
43. Learn how to produce eternal children, not such as may supply the
wants of the body in old age, but such as may nourish the soul with
perpetual food.
44, It is impossible that the same person can be a lover of
pleasure, a lover of body, a lover of riches, and a lover of Divinity.
For a lover of pleasure is also a lover of body; but a lover of body is
entirely a lover of riches; a lover of riches is necessarily unjust; and
the unjust is necessarily profane towards Divinity, and lawless with
respect to men. Hence, though he should sacrifice hecatombs, he is only
by this means the more impious, unholy, atheistical, and sacrilegious,
with respect to his intentions: and on this account it is necessary to
avoid every lover of pleasure as an atheist and polluted person.
45. The Divinity has not a place in the earth more allied to his
nature than a pure and holy soul.
Suggested Further Reading
Footnotes
31:1
Because virtue is the perfection of life, and the proper perfection of any
being is the felicity of that being.
32:1
And this is the case with intellectual good.
| Source:
The Golden Verses of Pythagoras And Other Pythagorean Fragments Selected
and Arranged by Florence M. Firth With an Introduction by Annie Besant
[1904] |
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