Taking care of oneself is not a rest cure...

Foucault, The Care of the Self, pp. 50-51:

With regard to oneself as well, [the care of the self] implies labor. It takes time...[reflection, mediation, retreats to the country-side]...

The time is not empty; it is filled with exercises, practical tasks, various activities. Taking cure of oneself is not a rest cure. There is care of the body to consider...

There are the meditations, the reading, the notes that one takes on books or on conversations that one has heard, notes that one reads again later, the recollection of truths that one knows already but that need to more fully adapted to one's own life. Marcus Aurelius thus gives an example of "a retreat within oneself": it is a sustained effort in which general principles are reactivated and arguments are adduced that persuade one not to let oneself become angry at others, at providence, or at things.

There is also the talks that one has with a confidant, with friends, and with a guide or director.

Add to this the correspondence in which one reveals the state of one's soul, solicits advice, gives advice to anyone who needs it - which for that matter constitutes a beneficial exercise for the giver, who is called the preceptor, because he thereby reactualizes it for himself.

Around the care of the self, there developed an entire activity of speaking and writing in which the work of oneself on oneself and communication with others were linked together.

The soul takes on the color of your thoughts

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Five, 16:

The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. The soul takes on the color of your thoughts.

On moving towards virtue, imperfectly

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Five, 9:

Not to feel exasperated, or defeated, or despondent because your days aren't packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human - however imperfectly - and fully embrace the pursuit that you've embarked on.

Justice

Which words are used to describe the virtue of Justice?

Seneca: justice, upright (Letters from a Stoic, XC, LXXVIII)

Marcus Aurelius: honesty, gravity, sincerity (Meditations, Book 5, 5); straightforward, considerate (Book 3, 4)

Prudence

Which words are used to describe the virtue of prudence?

Seneca: moral insight (Letters from a Stoic, XC)

Marcus Aurelius: gravity, seriousness, high-mindedness (Meditations, Book 5, 5)

Fortitude

Which words are used to describe the virtue of fortitude?

Seneca: courage, bravery (Seneca, Letters from a Stoic, LXXVII); fortitude (Tacitus' account of Seneca's Death)

Marcus Aurelius: endurance (Meditations, Book 5, 5)

Temperance

Which words are used to describe the virtue of temperance?

Seneca: self-control

Marcus Aurelius: austerity, abstinence, moderation, patience, resignation (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Five, 5)

No one could ever accuse you of being quick-witted.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Five, 5:

No one could ever accuse you of being quick-witted.
Alright, but there are plenty of other things you can't claim you "haven't got in you." Practice the virtues you can show: honesty, gravity, endurance, austerity, resignation, abstinence, patience, sincerity, moderation, seriousness, high-mindedness.

Stop being jerked like a puppet

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Seven, 29:

Discard your misperceptions.
Stop being jerked like a puppet.
Limit yourself to the present.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Four, 2:

No random actions, none not based on underlying principles.

"If you seek tranquility, do less"

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Four, 24:

"If you seek tranquility, do less." Or (more accurately) do what's essential - what the logos of a social being requires, and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better.

Be your own savior while you can...

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Three, 14:

Stop drifting...sprint for the finish. Write off your hopes, and if your well-being matters to you, be your own savior while you can.

Brevity of life

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Three, 10:

Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant.

How to act

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Three, 5:

Never under compulsion, out of selfishness, without forethought, with misgivings.
Don't gussy up your thoughts.
No surplus words or unnecessary actions.

Life is warfare and a journey far from home...

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Seven, 61:

Not a dancer but a wrestler: waiting, poised and dug in, for sudden assaults.

Be brave, nature-boy

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9:

That you are part of nature, and no one can prevent you from speaking and acting in harmony with it, always.

Compare with one of the more uplifting sentiments from Gracian in which he counsels us to "side with reason," seemingly (and uncharacteristically) regardless of consequences.

On the nexus of virtue and focused attention

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5:

Concentrate every minute like a Roman - like a man - on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from other distractions. Yes, you can - if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.

Don't die on every hill

Discourses, Book I, Chapter 29

When children come up to us clapping their hands and shouting, 'Today is good Saturnalia,' do we say, 'The Saturnalia is not "good"?' Of course not, we clap out hands right along with them. As for you, if you can't change a person's mind, realize that he is no more than a child - and clap hands with him. And if you can't bring yourself to do that, then just keep quiet.

And from Marcus Aurelius (Meditations, 50)

Do your best to convince them. But act on your own if justice requires it. If met with force, then fall back on acceptance and peaceability. Use the set-back to practice other virtues.

Remember that our efforts are subject to circumstances; you weren't aiming to do the impossible.

- Aiming to do what, then?

To try. And you succeeded. What you set out to do is accomplished.

Our actions are all determined by our impressions

Epictetus, Discourses, Book I, 28:

Whoever keeps in mind that our actions are all determined by our impressions, which can be either right or wrong...whoever keeps this in mind will not be angry or upset with anyone, won't curse, blame, resent or malign anyone either.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Four, 7:

Choose not to be harmed - and you won't feel harmed.
Don't feel harmed - and you haven't been.

The approval of lunatics

Discourses, Book I, Chapter 22

And who exactly are these people that you want to be admired by? Aren't they the same people you are in the habit of calling crazy? And is this your life ambition, then - to win the approval of lunatics?

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2, 12:

...the real nature of the things our senses experience, especially those that entice us with pleasure or frighten us with pain or are loudly trumpeted by pride. To understand those things - how stupid, contemptible, grimy, decaying and dead they are - that's what our intellectual powers are for. And to understand what those people really amount to, whose opinions and voices constitute fame.

View every new day as if it is your last...

"Amid hopes and cares, amid fears and passions, believe that every day that has dawned is your last. Gratefully will arrive to you another hour unhoped for." - Horace (Epicurean)

"You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think." - Marcus Aurelius

And what do you make of this?
"Everyone departs from life as if he had just been born." - Epicurus
Is this a view from the deathbed, when the life that is passing away appears impossibly brief? Or does this mean something else?