Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
In the same degree in which a man's mind is nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength.
This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to one's fate.
Be like the rocky headland on which the waves constantly break. It stands firm, and round it the seething waters are laid to rest.
...the sole thing of which any man can be deprived is the present; since this is all he owns, and nobody can lose what is not his.
All things are in the act of change; thou thyself in ceaseless transformation and partial decay, and the whole universe with thee.
But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power whenever you choose to retire into yourself.
After this time I surpassed all others in authority, but I had no more power than the others who were also my colleagues in office.
Take full account of what Excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.
Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.
Let thy chief fort and place of defense be a mind free from passions. A stronger place and better fortified than this, hath no man.
Find joy in simplicity, self-respect, and indifference to what lies between virtue and vice. Love the human race. Follow the divine.
To live each day as though one's last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing - here is the perfection of character.
All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road, thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself.
Reflect often upon the rapidity with which all existing things, or things coming into existence, sweep past us and are carried away.
Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.
The healthy eye ought to see all visible things and not to say, I wish for green things; for this is the condition of a diseased eye.
That which is really beautiful has no need of anything; not more than law, not more than truth, not more than benevolence or modesty.
The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.
At day's first light have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that "I am rising for the work of man."
There is change in all things. You yourself are subject to continual change and some decay, and this is common to the entire universe.
Remember: Matter: how tiny your share of it. Time: how brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate: how small a role you play in it.
Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding.
There is but one thing of real value - to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without anger in the midst of lying and unjust men.
Even the stoics agree that certainty is very hard to come at; that our assent is worth little, for where is infallibility to be found?
People generally despise where they flatter, and cringe to those they would gladly overtop; so that truth and ceremony are two things.
Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature?
You are making an inopportune rejection of what Nature has given you today, if all your mind is set on what men will say of you tomorrow.
All things are changing; and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to.
Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.
Consider how many do not even know your name, and how many will soon forget it, and how those who now praise you will presently blame you.
The greatest part of what we say and do is really unnecessary. If a man takes this to heart, he will have more leisure and less uneasiness.
Everything that happens either happens in such a way as you are formed by nature to bear it, or as you are not formed by nature to bear it.
Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible; life in a palace is possible; therefore even in a palace a right life is possible.
Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.
Neither in writing nor in reading wilt thou be able to lay down rules for others before thou shalt have first learned to obey rules thyself.
Why should any of these things that happen externally distract thee? Give thyself leisure to learn some good thing: cease roving to and fro.
Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed.
On the occasion of every act ask thyself, How is this with respect to me? Shall I repent of it? A little time and I am dead, and all is gone.
Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achieving of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee.
Severally on the occasion of everything that thou doest, pause and ask thyself, if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives thee of this.
The earth loveth the shower," and "the holy æther knoweth what love is." The Universe, too, loves to create whatsoever is destined to be made.
Be cheerful, also, and seek not external help, nor the peace which others give. A man must stand straight, and not be kept straight by others.
People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time-even when hard at work.
Doth perfect beauty stand in need of praise at all? Nay; no more than law, no more than truth, no more than loving kindness, nor than modesty.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, o Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee.
Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.
How many after being celebrated by fame have been given up to oblivion; and how many who have celebrated the fame of others have long been dead.