Do not try to seem wise to others. If you want to live a wise life, live it on your own terms and in your own eyes.
Men are not influenced by things but by their thoughts about things.
Ask not that events should happen as you will but let your will be that events should happen as they do and you shall have peace.
It is much better to die of hunger unhindered by grief and fear than to live affluently beset with worry, dread, suspicion and unchecked desire.
If you seek truth you will not seek victory by dishonorable means, and if you find truth you will become invincible.
You will never have to experience defeat if you avoid contests whose outcome is outside your control.
Protect what belongs to you at all costs; don't desire what belongs to another.
Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.
Keep the prospect of death, exile and all such apparent tragedies before you every day – especially death – and you will never have an abject thought, or desire anything to excess.
It is possible to learn the will of nature from the things in which we do not differ from each other. For example, when someone else's little slave boy breaks his cup we are ready to say, It's one of...
If a man has reported to you, that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make any defense to what has been told you: but reply, The man did not know the rest of my faults, for he would not have m...
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.
Don't concern yourself with other people's business. It's his problem if he receives you badly. And you cannot suffer for another person's fault. So don't worry about the behavior of other.
Does anyone bathe hastily? Do not say that they do it ill, but hastily. Does anyone drink much wine? Do not say that they do ill, but that they drink a great deal. For unless you perfectly understand...
Disease is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless the will itself chooses. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will. And add this reflection on the occasion of everyth...
No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then...
Who is your master? Whoever has authority over anything that you’re anxious to gain or avoid.
You journey to Olympia to see the work of Phidias; and each of you holds it a misfortune not to have beheld these things before you die. Whereas when there is no need even to take a journey, but you a...
So what oppresses and scares us? It is our own thoughts, obviously, What overwhelms people when they are about to leaves friends, family, old haunts and their accustomed way of life? Thoughts.
Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress.