When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time.

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

You can commit injustice by doing nothing.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

What illusion about myself do I entertain?

The rational animal is consequently also a social animal.

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.

Glory’s an empty, changeable thing, as fickle as the weather.

Poverty is the mother of crime.

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Nothing happens to anyone that he can’t endure.

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.

Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.

Keep at it… As a blazing fire takes whatever you throw on it, and makes it light and flame.

When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstance, revert at once to yourself and don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help. You’ll have a better grasp of harmony if you keep going back to it.

So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

Take the shortest route, the one that nature planned – to speak and act in the healthiest way. Do that, and be free of pain and stress, free of all calculation and pretention.

It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

Keep reminding yourself of the way things are connected, of their relatedness. All things are implicated in one another and in sympathy with each other. This event is the consequence of some other one. Things push and pull on each other, and breathe together, and are one.

As if you had died and your life had extended only to this present moment, use the surplus that is left to you to live from this time onward according to nature.

The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it… Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.

It is in your power to live here. But if men do not permit you, then get away out of life, as if you were suffering no harm. The house is smoky, and I quit it. Why do you think that this is any trouble? But so long as nothing of the kind drives me out, I remain, am free, and no man shall hinder me from doing what I choose; and I choose to do what is according to the nature of the rational and social animal.

The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them — especially not from yourself.

If you didn’t learn these things in order to demonstrate them in practice, what did you learn them for?

People with a strong physical constitution can tolerate extremes of hot and cold; people of strong mental health can handle anger, grief, joy and the other emotions.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

How long will you wait before you demand the best of yourself, and trust reason to determine what is best?

‘I will throw you into prison.’ Correction – it is my body you will throw there.

When faced with anything painful or pleasurable, anything bringing glory or disrepute, realize that the crisis is now, that the Olympics have started, and waiting is no longer an option; that the chance for progress, to keep or lose, turns on the events of a single day.

In the morning, when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being.

No man can escape his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he has to live.

A man’s worth is no greater than his ambitions.

Another person will not hurt you without your cooperation; you are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be.

Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.

Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions.

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.

When you’ve done well and another has benefited by it, why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top— credit for the good deed or a favor in return?

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

The following are non-sequiturs: ‘I am richer, therefore superior to you’; or ‘I am a better speaker, therefore a better person, than you’.

Something good should be a source of pride, correct? ‘Yes.’ And can one really take pride in a momentary pleasure? Please don’t say yes.

All our efforts must be directed towards an end, or we will act in vain. If it is not the right end, we will fail utterly.