Quotes
Quotes to inspire and reflect
“Misfortune nobly born is good fortune.”
6
“All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it.”
10
“Men are of little worth. Their brief lives last a single day. They cannot hold elusive pleasure fast; Ii melts away. All laurels wither; all illusions fade; Hopes have been phantoms, shade on air-built shade since time began.”
5
“To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.”
6
“Men seek out retreats for themselves in the country, by the seaside, on the mountains… nowhere can a man find a retreat more peaceful or more free from trouble than his own soul.”
6
“Order your soul. Reduce your wants.”
21
“We must take a higher view of all things, and bear with them more easily: it better becomes a man to scoff at life than to lament over it.”
7
“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
9
“Don’t allow yourself to be heard any longer griping about public life, not even with your own ears!”
9
“How does it help…to make troubles heavier by bemoaning them?”
9
“If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it.”
11
“If it’s endurable, then endure it, stop complaining.”
10
“The awake share a common world, but the asleep turn aside into private worlds.”
12
“Deaths that are greater, greater portions gain.”
13
“Excess in anything becomes a fault.”
8
“It is essential that we not respond impulsively… take a moment before reacting, and you will find it easier to maintain control.”
12
“Every hour, focus your mind attentively… on the performance of the task in hand, with dignity, human sympathy, benevolence and freedom, and leave aside all other thoughts. You will achieve this, if you perform each action as if it were your last.”
10
“Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.”
9
“Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
12
“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”
8
“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.”
15
“No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.”
7
“Today, I escaped from anxiety. Or, no; I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions—not outside.”
7
“The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”
9
“External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them, which you can erase right now.”
8
“Everything hangs on one’s thinking…a man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.”
11
“You have to assemble your life yourself, action by action.”
12
“Don’t be overheard complaining…not even to yourself.”
10
“Ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary?”
11
“Recognize that if something is humanly possible, you can do it too.”
9
“Kindness is unconquerable, so long as it is without flattery or hypocrisy. For what can the most insolent man do to you, if you contrive to be kind to him, and if you have the chance gently advise and calmly show him what is right…and point this out tactfully and from a universal perspective.”
9
“Don’t hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.”
13
“In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.”
9
“Have I done something for the common good? Then I share in the benefits.”
8
“No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself.”
13
“Speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility.”
9
“If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.”
11
“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”
7
I have about concluded that wealth is a state of mind, and that anyone can acquire a wealthy state of mind by thinking rich thoughts.
15
No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
6
Why is one man richer than another? Because he is more industrious, more persevering and more sagacious.
16
Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only.
5
That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.
6
Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do to ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.
15
A speculator is one who runs risks of which he is aware, and an investor is one who runs risks of which he is unaware.
16
A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments.
6
Let me gain by you, and no matter whether you love me or not.
9
When I caution you against becoming a miser, I do not therefore advise you to become a prodigal or a spendthrift.
10