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Quotes by Roman Authors
"It is a higher glory... to stay war itself with a word, than to slay men with the sword, and to procure or maintain peace by peace, not by war."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking."
"That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty."
"A man's happiness: to do the things proper to man."
"I was myself brought up with my brother, whose name was Matthias, for he was my own brother, by both father and mother; and I made mighty proficiency in the improvements of my learning, and appeared to have both a great memory and understanding."
"The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words."
"Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one."
"Rule your mind or it will rule you."
"Moreover, you can't stand so much as an hour of your own companyor spend your leisure properly; you avoid yourself like a truantor fugitive, hoping by drink or sleep to elude Angst.But it's no good, for that dark companion stays on your heels."
"To the divine providence it has seemed good to prepare in the world to come for the righteous good things, which the unrighteous shall not enjoy; and for the wicked evil things, by which the good shall not be tormented."
"He hath freedom whoso beareth clean and constant heart within."
"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."
"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."
"Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already."
"No matter how dysfunctional your background, how broke or broken you are, where you are today, or what anyone else says, YOU MATTER, and your life matters!"
"Human life. Duration: momentary. Nature: changeable. Perception: dim. Condition of Body: decaying. Soul: spinning around. Fortune: unpredictable. Lasting Fame: uncertain. Sum Up: The body and its parts are a river, the soul a dream and mist, life is warfare and a journey far from home, lasting reputation is oblivion."
"Bright light is injurious to those who see nothing."
"Just as the soul fills the body, so God fills the world. Just as the soul bears the body, so God endures the world. Just as the soul sees but is not seen, so God sees but is not seen. Just as the soul feeds the body, so God gives food to the world."
"The crop always seems better in our neighbor's field and our neighbor's cow gives more milk."
"He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing."
"There is no sin unless through a man's own will, and hence the reward when we do right things also of our own."
"Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil."
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