Consciousness and Self-Knowledge

The way up and the way down are one and the same.

God has entrusted me with myself.

It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.

When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.

No man is hurt but by himself.

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.

The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.

A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.

Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds.

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen.

Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.