A room without books is like a body without a soul.
In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.
Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: 1. Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; 2. Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; 3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; 4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; 5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; 6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.
Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds.
One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.
One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
Betray a friend, and you’ll often find you have ruined yourself.
Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.
I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live.
He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.
It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.
The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.
What makes a man a ‘sophist’ is not his faculty, but his moral purpose.
We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
He whom loves touches not walks in darkness.
The mob is the mother of tyrants.
Men should strive to think much and know little.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
Epictetus being asked how a man should give pain to his enemy answered, By preparing himself to live the best life that he can.
The traitor rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.
Not all, what happens, happens because of fate. Something is in our hands.
Where there’s life, there’s hope.
Don’t think, just do.
The journey of a 1000 miles begins with one step.
He who feared that he would not succeed sat still.
He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.
There is no success without hardship.
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.
We are just statistics, born to consume resources.
Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law.
Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.
Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness.
I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.
A man’s character is his fate.
The greatest pleasure of life is love.
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
