“Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending.”

Offering a compact view of the changing purposes of life · Prose meditation (Meditations Divine and Moral)

• Mortality
• Time

“There's no object that we see but carries a double reflection, one of its own, and one of the beholder's.”

Reflecting on how perception shapes the meaning of things · Prose meditation (Meditations Divine and Moral)

• Beauty
• Truth

“Sweet words are like honey, a little may refresh, but too much gluts the stomach.”

Suggesting that pleasant speech is best valued in moderation · Prose meditation (Meditations Divine and Moral)

• Friendship
• Truth

“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”

Warning that power without judgement becomes destructive · Prose meditation (Meditations Divine and Moral)

• Truth
• Wisdom

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

Finding meaning in contrast and resilience through hardship · Prose meditation (Meditations Divine and Moral)

• Hope
• Nature