"Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh."

"Every living organism is fulfilled when it follows the right path for its own nature."

"Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too."

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature."

"Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground."

"The passing minute is every man's equal possession but what has once gone by is not ours."

"Why do we shrink from change? What can come into being save by change?"

"It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own."

"Our thoughts is what our life make it."

"Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, "This is a misfortune" but "To bear this worthily is good fortune.""

"Humans have come into being for the sake of each other, so either teach them, or learn to bear them."

"Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back."

"Poverty is the mother of crime."

"All things fade into the storied past, and in a little while are shrouded in oblivion."

"Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already."

"Things of themselves cannot touch the soul at all. They have no entry to the soul, and cannot turn or move it. The soul alone turns and moves itself, making all externals presented to it cohere with the judgements it thinks worthy of itself."

"All things fade and quickly turn to myth."

"Will any man despise me? Let him see to it. But I will see to it that I may not be found doing or saying anything that deserves to be despised."

"Man must be arched and buttressed from within else the temple wavers to dust."

"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart."

"That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees."

"Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker."

"God give me patience, to reconcile with what I am not able to changeGive me strength to change what I canAnd give me wisdom to distinguish one from another."

"Love only what befalls you and is spun for you by fate."

"Be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. I hear you say, "How unlucky that this should happen to me!" Not at all! Say instead, "How lucky that I am not broken by what has happened and am not afraid of what is about to happen. The same blow might have struck anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation or complaint."

"Nothing is more scandalous than a man that is proud of his humility."

"When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you."

"Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature."

"The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it."

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

"Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also."

"Time is like a river of fleeting events and its current is strong as soon as something comes into sight it is swept past us and something else takes its place and that too will be swept away."

"To live each day as though one's last never flustered never apathetic never attitudinizing-here is perfection of character."

"Do not disturb yourself by picturing your life as a whole; do not assemble in your mind the many and varied troubles which have come to you in the past and will come again in the future, but ask yourself with regard to every present difficulty: 'What is there in this that is unbearable and beyond endurance?' You would be ashamed to confess it! And then remind yourself that it is not the future or what has passed that afflicts you, but always the present, and the power of this is much diminished if you take it in isolation and call your mind to task if it thinks that it cannot stand up to it when taken on its own."

"We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne."

"Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live."

"A man should always have these two rules in readiness. First, to do only what the reason of your ruling and legislating faculties suggest for the service of man. Second, to change your opinion whenever anyone at hand sets you right and unsettles you in an opinion, but this change of opinion should come only because you are persuaded that something is just or to the public advantage, not because it appears pleasant or increases your reputation."

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, "Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?" neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility. . . ."

"It is in your own power to maintain the beauty of your soul, or to be a decent human being."

"Let them know a real man who lives as he was meant to live."

"Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is misfortune," but "To bear this worthily is good fortune."

"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking."

"This is the chief thing: be not perturbed for all things are according to the nature of the universal."

"That all is as thinking makes it so " and you control your thinking. So remove your judgements whenever you wish and then there is calm - as the sailor rounding the cape finds smooth water and the welcome of a waveless bay."

"That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here, it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they murmur not"."

"If the gods have determined about me and about the things which must happen to me, they have determined well, for it is not easy even to imagine a deity without forethought; and as to doing me harm, why should they have any desire towards that? For what advantage would result to them from this or to the whole, which is the special object of their providence? But if they have not determined about me individually, they have certainly determined about the whole at least, and the things which happen by way of sequence in this general arrangement I ought to accept with pleasure and to be content with them."

"Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil."

"Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away."

"Neither worse then nor better is a thing made by being praised."

"Vex not thy spirit at the course of things they heed not thy vexation. How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life."