VIRTUE
- Be hard to kill, be hard to outwit. Be better tomorrow than you are today. The only thing you control in this world is yourself. Knowing this is a virtue.
- To care for your fellow man in a cruel world is a sign of virtue. Mentor and help those around you, expecting nothing in return.
- Do what you must; come what may. Your actions are not guaranteed to influence the world around you. All which you can influence with certainty is in your own mind.
- Make savage the body, make sharp the mind, and you will not only understand the universe, but control it.
- Nature behaves according to laws of reason; human beings are of nature. Therefore, to think and act rationally is to follow your true nature.
- Accept that which you cannot change; become master of all which you can. To do this is to live virtuously.
SOCIETY
- We are mammals living in nature; do not let the communality of human society hide this from you. Your fellow man may help you or kill you. He has no fundamental obligation to either.
- A township can do more than a single man; a state can do more than a township. Great accomplishments require concerted effort. Therefore a state is preferable to a township, and a township is preferable to a man.
- A township is more complex than a man, and a state is more complex than a township. Where there is complexity, there is confusion; where there is confusion, there is failure. This is the great paradox of human affairs. Therefore, seek to work together, but depend only on yourself.
- Competition between neighbors creates progress, but destroys the lesser man. A society which destroys its neighbors destroys itself. Therefore, the victors must care for those they defeat, to preserve the meaning of their victory.
- To act virtuously, begin by loving yourself. After this, love your family. After this, love your neighbor. After this, your countrymen. After this, mankind. Then, if you love your family as you love yourself, your neighbor as your family, your countrymen as your neighbor, and mankind as your countrymen, you will understand how to behave toward everyone you meet.
EXISTENCE
- A man living in an illusion knows only the illusion; therefore, we will never know anything for certain but the contents of our own minds. Master your mind, and you have mastered the knowable universe.
- A vast eternity of darkness stretches before our birth and after our death. Whether a man lives a hundred years or a handful, his existence is infinitesimal. Treasure each day.
