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.

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.

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?

For he who is unmusical is a child in music; he who is without letters is a child in learning; he who is untaught, is a child in life.

Don't you know that a good and excellent person does nothing for the sake of appearances, but only for the sake of having acted right?

For this too is a very pleasant strand woven into the Cynic's pattern of life; he must needs be flogged like an ass, and while he is being flogged he must love the men who flog him, as though he were the father or brother of them all.

Let not that which in the case of another is contrary to nature become an evil for you; for you are born not to be humiliated along with others, nor to share in their misfortunes, but to share in their good fortune. If, however, someone is unfortunate, remember that his misfortune concerns himself. For God made all mankind to be happy, to be serene.

We ought neither to fasten our ship to one small anchor nor our life to a single hope.