Meditations - 01
---Book 1 DEBTS AND LESSONS---
The recognition that I needed to train and discipline my character.
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Not to be sidetracked by my interest in rhetoric修辭. Not to write?
treatises論述 on abstract questions, or deliver moralizing little?
sermons說教, or compose imaginary descriptions of The Simple Life or?
The Man Who Lives Only for Others.?
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To ★steer clear of避開 oratory言辭/演講, poetry and belles美女? lettres.
Not to dress up just to stroll閑逛 around the house, or things like that.
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To write straightforward直白的 letters.
And to behave in a conciliatory安撫的 way when people who have
angered or annoyed us want to make up.
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To read attentively周到地———not to be satisfied with “just getting?
the gist主旨/要點(diǎn) of it.” And not to ★fall for沉迷 every smooth talker.
And to see clearly, from his example, that a?
man can show both strength and flexibility.
To learned how to accept ★favors好意/幫助/支持 from friends without losing
your self-respect or appearing ungrateful.
To show intuitive sympathy for friends, tolerance to amateurs and
sloppy粗心的 thinkers.
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To investigate and analyze, with understanding and logic, the principles
we ought to live by.
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Not to display anger or other emotions. ★To be free of免于 passion?
and yet full of love.
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To praise without bombast夸大其詞; to display expertise without pretension.
Not to be constantly correcting people, and in particular not to jump on
them whenever they make an error of usage or a grammatical mistake or
mispronounce something, but just answer their question or add another
example, or debate the issue itself (not their phrasing措辭), or make some?
other contribution to the discussion———and insert the right expression,
unobtrusively客氣地.
To recognize the malice惡意, cunning狡猾, and hypocrisy虛偽 that power produces,
and the peculiar ruthlessness often shown by people from “good families.”
Self-control and resistance to distractions.
Optimism in adversity———especially illness.
Doing your job without whining牢騷.