Do you suppose that you can do the things you do now, and yet be a philosopher? Do you suppose that you can eat in the same fashion, drink in the same fashion, give way to anger and to irritation, just as you do now?

In each separate thing that you do consider the matters which come first, and those which follow after, and only then approach the thing itself.

Two principles we should always have ready that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.

What should a philosopher say, then, in the face of each of the hardships of life? "It was for this that I've been training myself, it was for this that I was practising."

Why, what is weeping and sighing? A judgement. What is misfortune? A judgement. What are strife, disagreement, fault-finding, accusing, impiety, foolishness? They are all judgements.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

Who is not tempted by attractive and wide-awake children to join their sports, and crawl on all fours with them, and talk baby talk with them?

Some of their faults people readily admit, but others not so readily.

The propositions which are true and evident must of necessity be employed even by those who contradict them.

Show me someone who is ill and yet happy, in danger and yet happy, dying and yet happy, exiled and yet happy. Show me such a person; by the gods, how greatly I long to see a Stoic!