 If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked. |
| It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them. |
| One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent. |
| Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them. |
| You are a little soul carrying around a corpse. |
| Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return? |
| Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public. |
| If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please. |
| Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee. |
| Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly. |
| Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. |
| We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope. |
| Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed. |
| No man is free who is not master of himself. |
| If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. |
| The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going. |
| First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. |
| All religions must be tolerated... for every man must get to heaven in his own way. |
| Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else. |
| It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. |
