"It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them."

"If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it."

"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will."

"No man is free who is not master of himself."

"We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope."

"If you want to make progress, put up with being perceived as ignorant or naive in worldly matters, don't aspire to a reputation for sagacity. If you do impress others as somebody, don't altogether believe it. You have to realize, it isn't easy to keep your will in agreement with nature, as well as externals. Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other."

"Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else."

"It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows."

"If you have assumed any character beyond your strength, you have both demeaned yourself ill in that and quitted one which you might have supported."

"The philosopher's school, ye men, is a surgery: you ought not to go out of it with pleasure, but with pain. For you are not in sound health when you enter."

"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."

"He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has."

"Men are not influenced by things but by their thoughts about things."

"It isn't death, pain, exile or anything else you care to mention that accounts for the way we act, only our opinion about death, pain and the rest."

"Nature has given to men one tongue but two ears that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak."

"Reading should serve the goal of attaining peace; if it doesn't make you peaceful, what good is it?"

"For in this Case, we are not to give Credit to the Many, who say, that none ought to be educated but the Free; but rather to the Philosophers, who say, that the Well-educated alone are free."

"If you wish to be a writer, write."

"So what oppresses and scares us? It is our own thoughts, obviously, What overwhelms people when they are about to leaves friends, family, old haunts and their accustomed way of life? Thoughts."

"Very little is needed for everything to be upset and ruined, only a slight lapse in reason."

"No man is free until he s a master of himself!!"

"I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?"

"You only have to doze a moment, and all is lost. For ruin and salvation both have their source inside you."

"Practice yourself, for heaven's sake in little things, and then proceed to greater."

"You are a little soul carrying around a corpse."

"Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit."

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants."

"No great thing is created suddenly."

"An ignorant person is inclined to blame others for his own misfortune. To blame oneself is proof of progress. But the wise man never has to blame another or himself."

"Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress."

"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters."

"Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly."

"If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please."

"Freedom, you see, is having events go in accordance with our will, never contrary to it."

"Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens."

"As the sun does not wait for prayers and incantations tob e induced to rise, but immediately shines and is saluted by all, so do you also not wait for clappings of hands and shouts of praise tob e induced to do good, but be a doer of good voluntarily and you will be beloved as much as the sun."

"Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire."

"Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort."

"Here is the beginning of philosophy: a recognition of the conflicts between men a search for their cause a condemnation of mere opinion .. . and the discovery of a standard of judgement."

"Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening."

"Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems."

"As a man, casting off worn out garments taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, entereth into ones that are new."

"He who exercises wisdom, exercises the knowledge which is about God."

"The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things."

"All philosophy in two words - sustain and abstain."

"We should realize that an opinion is not easily formed unless a person says and hears the same things every day and practises them in real life."

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."

"And where there is ignorance, there is also want of learning and instruction in essentials."

"Ask not that events should happen as you will but let your will be that events should happen as they do and you shall have peace."

"Do you know that disease and death must needs overtake us no matter what we are doing? ... What do you wish to be doing when it overtakes you?... If you have anything better to be doing when you are so overtaken get to work on that."