Since it is possible that you might depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.
The world is mere change, and this life, opinion.
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.
Death is a cessation from the impression of the senses, the tyranny of the passions, the errors of the mind, and the servitude of the body.
He is so rich, he has no room to shit.
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.
No man is happy who does not think himself so.
The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
Unhappy am I because this has happened to me. Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future.
All of us are creatures of a day; the rememberer and the remembered alike.
Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; and if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.
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.
Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.
Our life is what our thoughts make it.
The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.
Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.
Be cheerful also, and seek not external help nor the tranquility which others give. A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.
Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.
If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now.
Meditate upon what you ought to be in body and soul when death overtakes you; meditate on the brevity of life, and the measureless gulf of eternity behind it and before, and upon the frailty of everything material.
Stupidity is expecting figs in winter, or children in old age.
There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his deathbed won’t hail the occasion with delight.
Wilt thou, then, my soul, never be good and simple and one and naked, more manifest than the body which surrounds thee?
A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.
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.
He who eats my bread does my will.
It is in your own power to maintain the beauty of your soul, or to be a decent human being.
No more roundabout discussions of what makes a good man. Be one!
The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.
All things fade and quickly turn to myth.
Do the things external which fall upon thee distract thee? Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.
Humans have come into being for the sake of each other, so either teach them, or learn to bear them.
Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.
Whatever time you choose is the right time. Not late, not early.
Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
Everything that happens, happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.
In a little while you will have forgotten everything; in a little while everything will have forgotten you.
Men exist for the sake of one another.
Swiftly the remembrance of all things is buried in the gulf of eternity.
These things thou must always have in mind: What is the nature of the universe, and what is mine
You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can’t control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.
A Man’s life is dyed the color of his imagination.
