One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.

Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return?

If you seek truth you will not seek victory by dishonorable means, and if you find truth you will become invincible.

Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.

Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.

If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.