How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. 

Most of us dread the deadening of the body and will do anything to avoid it. About the deadening of the soul, however, we don’t care one iota.

Don’t let outward appearances mislead you into thinking that someone with more prestige, power or some other distinction must on that account be happy.

As you are careful when you walk not to step on a nail or turn your ankle, so you should take care not to do any injury to your character at the same time.

If you lost the capacity to read, or play music, you would think it was a disaster, but you think nothing of losing the capacity to be honest, decent and civilized.

Things do not touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable; so our perturbations come only from our inner opinions.

We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Pleasures, when they go beyond a certain limit, are but punishments.

As it is with a play, so it is with life – what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is. It is not important at what point you stop. Stop wherever you will – only make sure that you round it off with a good ending.

You have to be odd to be number one.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent. 

He often acts unjustly who does not do a certain thing; not only he who does a certain thing.

If someone is incapable of distinguishing good things from bad and neutral things from either – well, how could such a person be capable of love? The power to love, then, belongs only to the wise man.

Often injustice lies in what you aren’t doing, not only in what you are doing.

To live the good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.

Stop wishing for something else to happen, for a different fate. That is to live a false life.

Enough of this miserable, whining life. Stop monkeying around! Why are you troubled? What’s new here? What’s so confounding? The one responsible? Take a good look. Or just the matter itself? Then look at that. There’s nothing else to look at. And as far as the gods go, by now you could try being more straightforward and kind. It’s the same, whether you’ve examined these things for a hundred years, or only three.

Life is short. That’s all there is to say. Get what you can from the present – thoughtfully, justly.

When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn’t have to look outside themselves for approval.

Mastery of reading and writing requires a master. Still, more so life.

Consider that as the heaps of sand piled on one another hide the former sands, so in life the events that go before are soon covered by those that come after.

"Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you're right"

If, at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, honesty, self-control, courage – than a mind satisfied that is has succeeded in enabling you to act rationally, and satisfied to accept what’s beyond its control – if you find anything better than that, embrace it without reservations – it must be an extraordinary thing indeed – and enjoy it to the full.

Where a man can live, he can also live well.

Treat what you don’t have as nonexistent. Look at what you have, the things you value most, and think of how much you’d crave them if you didn’t have them. But be careful. Don’t feel such satisfaction that you start to overvalue them – that it would upset you to lose them.

Just ask whether they put their self-interest in externals or in moral choice. If it’s in externals, you cannot call them friends, any more than you can call them trustworthy, consistent, courageous or free.

While you live, while it is in your power, be good.

What is the goal of virtue, after all, except a life that flows smoothly?

For where else is friendship found if not with fairness, reliability and respect for virtue only?

You will give yourself relief, if you do every act of your life as if it were the last.

Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.

Be cheerful also, and do not seek external help or the tranquillity that others give. A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.

Some people are so poor, all they have is money.

All generalizations are false, including this one.

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

The art of life is more like the wrestler’s art than the dancer’s, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets that are sudden and unexpected.

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

The history of your life is now complete and your service is ended: and how many beautiful things you have seen; and how many pleasures and pains you have despised; and how many things called honorable you have spurned; and to how many ill-minded folks you have shown a kind disposition.

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise.

Every day as it comes should be welcomed and reduced forthwith into our own possession as if it were the finest day imaginable. What flies past has to be seized at.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

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.

The tranquillity that comes when you stop caring what they say. Or think, or do. Only what you do.

Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we’re practically showered with them.

The man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.