He who boasts of his descent, praises the deeds of another.

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself." That was indeed a great benefit; such a person can never be alone. You may be sure that such a man is a friend to all mankind.

One crime has to be concealed by another.

A trifling debt makes a man your debtor; a large one makes him an enemy.

For love of bustle is not industry - it is only the restlessness of a hunted mind.

You do not know where death awaits you; so be ready for it everywhere.

He who does not prevent a crime, when he can, encourages it.

Socrates was ennobled by the hemlock draught. Wrench from Cato's hand his sword, the vindicator of liberty, and you deprive him of the greatest share of his glory.

Lay hold of today's task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow's. While we are postponing, life speeds by.

Mucius put his hand into the fire. It is painful to be burned; but how much more painful to inflict such suffering upon oneself!

Tis the first art of kings, the power to suffer hate.

But both courses are to be avoided; you should not copy the bad simply because they are many, nor should you hate the many because they are unlike you.

Impurity is caused by attitude, not events.

Prove your words by your deeds.

No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.

"What," say you, "are you giving me advice? Indeed, have you already advised yourself, already corrected your own faults? Is this the reason why you have leisure to reform other men?" No, I am not so shameless as to undertake to cure my fellow-men when I am ill myself. I am, however, discussing with you troubles which concern us both, and sharing the remedy with you, just as if we were lying ill in the same hospital.

Mercy often means giving death, not life.

There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.

What fools these mortals be!

Mucius might have accomplished something more successful in that camp, but never anything more brave.

Arms observe no bounds; nor can the wrath of the sword, once drawn, be easily checked or stayed; war delights in blood.

Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach.

A good mind possesses a kingdom.

What is wisdom? Always desiring the same things, and always refusing the same things.

Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.

Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy; even if some obstacle arise, it is but like an intervening cloud, which floats beneath the sun but never prevails against it.

The man who hopes for naught at least has naught to fear.

The old Romans had a custom which survived even into my lifetime. They would add to the opening words of a letter: "If you are well, it is well; I also am well." Persons like ourselves would do well to say. "If you are studying philosophy, it is well." For this is just what "being well" means. Without philosophy the mind is sickly.

Take your fill when the cask is first opened and when it is nearly spent, but midways be sparing: it is poor saving when you come to the lees.

It was a great deed to conquer Carthage, but a greater deed to conquer death.

Of war men ask the outcome, not the cause.

Live among men as if God beheld you; speak with God as if men were listening.

Death weighs on him who is known to all, but dies unknown to himself.

Press on, therefore, as you have begun; perhaps you will be led to perfection, or to a point which you alone understand is still short of perfection.

To be angry with a man is to hate him; to hate him is to wish him harm; but to wish him well, even if he has done you harm, is the mark of a great mind.

No man has ever been so far advanced by Fortune that she did not threaten him as greatly as she had previously indulged him.

Unjust dominion cannot be eternal.

There is no reason why poverty should call us away from philosophy-no, nor even actual want. For when hastening after wisdom, we must endure even hunger. Men have endured hunger when their towns were besieged, and what other reward for their endurance did they obtain than that they did not fall under the conqueror's power? How much greater is the promise of the prize of everlasting liberty, and the assurance that we need fear neither God nor man! Even though we starve, we must reach that goal.

We have Divine Wisdom in the mortal body.Whatever does harm to the body, ruins the House of the Eternal.

He who wants to govern must have insight into the hearts of men and act accordingly.

All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; but the dose makes it clear that a thing is not a poison.

We should become angels and not devils, that's why we have been created and born into the world. Therefore be and stick to what God has chosen you for.

If you have been given a talent, exercise it freely and happily like the sun: give everyone from your splendour.

Belief and work, knowledge and action are one and the same thing.

What else is the help of medicine than love?

In us there is the Light of Nature, and that Light is God.

Consider that we shouldn't call our brother a fool, since we don't know ourselves what we are.

What maintains the marriage and what is it? Only the knowledge of the hearts, that is its beginning and end.

Nothing is hidden so much that it wouldn't be revealed through its fruit.

God has given to all things their course and decided how high and how far they may go, not higher, not lower.