One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.
Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds.
Betray a friend, and you’ll often find you have ruined yourself.
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.
One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
What makes a man a ‘sophist’ is not his faculty, but his moral purpose.
Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.
The mob is the mother of tyrants.
The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.
Epictetus being asked how a man should give pain to his enemy answered, By preparing himself to live the best life that he can.
He whom loves touches not walks in darkness.
Men should strive to think much and know little.
We are just statistics, born to consume resources.
Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness.
He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.
Not all, what happens, happens because of fate. Something is in our hands.
Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.
There is no success without hardship.
Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law.
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.
It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.
A man’s character is his fate.
He who feared that he would not succeed sat still.
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
The greatest pleasure of life is love.
Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress.
It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance.
Where your talents and the needs of the world cross, there lies your calling.
Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.
Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.
Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil.
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.
There are three attributes for which I am grateful to Fortune: that I was born, first, human and not animal; second, man and not woman; and third, Greek and not barbarian.
Where a man is against his will, there his is imprisoned. Desire things to happen exactly as they happen and you will always be free.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
Destroy the seed of evil, or it will grow up to your ruin.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
A wise man does not chatter with one whose mind is sick.
Excessive dealings with tyrants are not good for the security of free states.
The secret to happiness isn’t gaining more but learning to enjoy less.
Everything has a natural explanation. The moon is not a god, but a great rock, and the sun a hot rock.