This is a crucial moment. You will be judged by how you conduct yourself over the next few months. As for philosophy, you want to talk the talk, but have you really internalized the messages of the philosophers? We discuss shipwrecks in the ancient world, some lessons from the movie The Edge, and the crucial importance of maintaining a rigorous, disciplined schedule. More than ever before, you have to be self-starter. Your time is now. You will not fail, because we will not permit you to fail.
Philo of Alexandria, in his essay on agriculture (De Agricultura), points out that there is a difference between an ordinary tiller of the ground, and an actual farmer; and that there is also a clear difference between a shepherd and someone who just tends to sheep. In the same way, he tells us, there is a great difference between a rider of a horse and a true horseman.
The Roman writer Aulus Gellius relates an anecdote about his discovery of the meaning of an old proverb. He tells us that he read the following line in one of the speeches of Marcus Cato Censorius:
Quintus Curtius 
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