"Sexual ecstasy is like death. It is one of the secrets of nature's wisdom."

"Do every act of your life as if it were your last."

"In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present - I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?"

"Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished."

"Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear."

"What am I but a little flesh, a little breath, and the thinking part that rules the whole?"

"You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone."

"What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat."

"Swiftly the remembrance of all things is buried in the gulf of eternity."

"Take full account of the excellencies which you possess and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them if you had them not."

"Try to live the life of the good man who is more than content with what is allocated to him."

"The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle."

"Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts."

"The sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment."

"You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long."

"When you run up against someone else's shamelessness, ask yourself this: Is a world without shamelessness possible?No. Then don't ask the impossible. There have to be shameless people in the world. This is one of them. The same for someone vicious or untrustworthy, or with any other defect. Remembering that the whole world class has to exist will make you more tolerant of its members."

"If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed."

"Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them."

"Give up your thirst for books, so that you do not die a grouch."

"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

"We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first."

"There is nothing more shameful than perfidious friendship."

"The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer."

"A person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values."

"All men are made one for another: either then teach them better or bear with them."

"Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and the ruling part. Throw away thy books; no longer distract thyself: it is not allowed; but as if thou wast now dying, despise the flesh; it is blood and bones and a network, a contexture of nerves, veins, and arteries. See the breath also, what kind of a thing it is, air, and not always the same, but every moment sent out and again sucked in. The third then is the ruling part: consider thus: Thou art an old man; no longer let this be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet to unsocial movements, no longer be either dissatisfied with thy present lot, or shrink from the future."

"Life is a stranger's sojourn a night at an inn."

"He is so rich, he has no room to shit."

"Even the least of our activities ought to have some end in view."

"No man is happy who does not think himself so."

"If all emotions are common coin, then what is unique to the good man?To welcome with affection what is sent by fate. Not to stain or disturb the spirit within him with a mess of false beliefs. Instead, to preserve it faithfully, by calmly obeying God " saying nothing untrue, doing nothing unjust. And if the others don't acknowledge it " this life lived in simplicity, humility, cheerfulness " he doesn't resent them for it, and isn't deterred from following the road where it leads: to the end of life. An end to be approached in purity, in serenity, in acceptance, in peaceful unity with what must be."

"We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that."

"A key point to bear in mind: The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You're better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve."

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."

"Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears."

"For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose."

"Confine yourself to the present."

"Perhaps there are none more lazy, or more truly ignorant, than your everlasting readers."

"Look beneath the surface, let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee."

"There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with."

"If something is difficult for you to accomplish, do not then think it impossible for any human being; rather, if it is humanly possible and corresponds to human nature, know that it is attainable by you as well."

"Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday."

"Where a man can live, he can also live well."

"He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe."

"Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself."

"Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence."

"Every man is worth just so much as the things about which he busies himself."

"To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions."

"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."