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.
Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.
Epictetus being asked how a man should give pain to his enemy answered, By preparing himself to live the best life that he can.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness.
Where there’s life, there’s hope.
It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance.
Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress.
He who fears death has already lost the life he covets.
As long as I breathe, I hope.
To teach is a necessity, to please is a sweetness, to persuade is a victory.
Anger so clouds the mind that it cannot perceive the truth.
An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.
It is a difficult matter to argue with the belly since it has no ears.
The secret to happiness isn’t gaining more but learning to enjoy less.
Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well.
Difficulty shows what men are.
Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.
Buy not what you want, but what you have need of; that which you do not need is always expensive.
Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavours. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths. Remain steadfast…and one day you will build something that endures: something worthy of your potential.
I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.
He is nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent.
Hours and days and months and years go by; the past returns no more, and what is to be we cannot know; but whatever the time gives us in which we live, we should therefore be content.
Be firm or mild as the occasion may require.
The mind becomes accustomed to things by the habitual sight of them, and neither wonders nor inquires about the reasons for things it sees all the time.
An orator is a good man who is skilled in speaking.
The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy but where are they.
Bravery stands halfway between anxiety and recklessness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of bravery.
Kindness is stronger than fear.
What one has, one ought to use; and whatever he does, he should do with all his might.
For it is not death or pain that is to be feared, but the fear of pain or death.
Speech is the gift of all, but the thought of few.
Men are not afraid of things, but of how they view them.
Farming, if you do one thing late, you will be late in all your work.
If you want to improve, you must be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Patience is the greatest of all virtues.
Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of men’s desires, but by the removal of desire.
Grasp the subject, the words will follow.
Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.
For sheep don’t throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk.
God has entrusted me with myself. No man is free who is not master of himself. A man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.
Is then the fruit of a fig-tree not perfect suddenly and in one hour, and would you possess the fruit of a man’s mind in so short a time and so easily?
