Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

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

He misses what is meant by epigram – who thinks it only frivolous flimflam

Good men make life a twofold span to last: Twice does he live who can enjoy his past

Socrates gave as his reason for declining an invitation to the court of Perdiccas, “I have no wish to go down to my grave with ignominy;” implying that he would accept no favor which he...

Gifts are like hooks

I think if we had the same magnitude of devastation that they had, we would be very much challenged as well,

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.

No man is happy who does not think himself so.

It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men’s badness, which is impossible.

There’s nothing more insufferable than people who boast about their own humility

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.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

Some good, some so-so, and lots plain bad: that’s how a book of poems is made, my friend

Whatever may happen to you was prepared for you from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of your being.

Your face is black, your hair like flame, And one eye’s damaged, one foot lame: If, still, you’re quite decent chap – Well ’tis a feather in your cap

How strangely men act. They will not praise those who are living at the same time and living with themselves; but to be themselves praised by posterity, by those whom they have never seen or...

Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this nature,that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so securestranquility.

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...

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.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

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...

Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle.

Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.

Take away your opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed.’ Take away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed,’ and the harm is taken away.

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

The perfumes at our board last night – Were exquisite, I won’t deny it, But we were starved, we were outright, For meat, could no how come by it

Death is a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.

Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of...

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

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,...

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

All things from eternity are of like forms and come round in a circle

Everyman’s life lies within the present, for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain

To read my book, the virgin shy – May blush, while Brutus standeth by: But when he’s gone, read through what’s writ, And never stain a cheek for it

You are pretty – we know it; and young – it’s true; and rich – who can deny it? But when you praise yourself extravagantly, Fabula, you appear neither rich, nor pretty, nor young

The flaw which is hidden is deemed greater than it is

Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.

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

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

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

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.

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

A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.

Your life is what your thoughts make it.

Life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.

He does not write at all whose poems no man reads

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...

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

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