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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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

Nothing happens to anyone that he can’t endure.

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Poverty is the mother of crime.

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

The rational animal is consequently also a social animal.

What illusion about myself do I entertain?

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

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