Rules From Sections 11-20

11. Nothing belongs to you.

"Never say, "I have lost it," but instead, "It was given back"" (PDF).

12. Tranquility has a price. Nothing is for free.

"It is better to die of hunger and distress than to live in the midst of plenty" (PDF).

13. You either are: in accordance with nature, or a materialistic person.

"Certainly it is not easy to be on guard both for one's choices to be in accord with nature and also for externals, and a person who concerns himself with one, will be bound to neglect the other" (PDF).

14. In order to obtain freedom, you have to avoid everything that is not up to you. If you want people to live forever, you are breaking rules one and eleven.

"You are foolish if you want your children and your wife and your friends to live forever, since you're wanting things to be up to you, that are not up to you, and things to be yours that are not yours" (PDF).

"Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise, he's a slave" (PDF).

15. Your behavior should be like the one in a banquet. Do not look for anything, but wait for it to come to you. When it does, don't keep it all to yourself. Do not go the easy way.

"Something is passed around and comes to you: reach out your hand politely and take some. It goes by: Do not hold it back. It has not arrived yet: do not stretch your desire towards it, but wait until it comes to you" (PDF).

"But if when things are set in front of you, do not take them but despise them (PDF).

16. When you see someone in grief, remind him: "What weighs down on this man is not what has happened to it (since it does not weigh down on someone else), but his judgment about it" (PDF).

Be ready to support them but do not grief for yourself.

17. What happens in you life, is not up to you. But you can choose how you handle it.

"Remember you are an actor in a play,which is as the playwright wants it to be: short if he wants it to be short, long if it wants it to be long" (PDF).

18. (I honestly don't know how to interpret this section. Any ideas, please comment.)

19. There can't be jealousy or envy in what is up to us. (e.g being the captain of the soccer team is not up to you, therefore there can be jealousy and envy. My opinion about this text is up to me, there can't be jealousy or envy within me.) Section nine-teen is reinforcing rules one, eleven and fourteen.

"You can be invincible if you do not enter any contest in which victory is not up to you" (PDF).

20. When a person is harmful to you, the person himself is not insulting. What's insulting is the judgment you have about what they are doing. Therefore, harm is in your own belief. (e.g if you are insulted by a homosexual, he himself is not insulting, the judgement you have about his situation is.)