Just as we suffer from excess in all things, so we suffer from excess in literature; thus we learn our lessons, not for life, but for the lecture room.

And we cannot change this order of things; but what we can do is to acquire stout hearts, worthy of good men, thereby courageously enduring chance and placing ourselves in harmony with Nature.

This spirit thrusts itself forward, confident of commendation and esteem. It is superior to all, monarch of all it surveys; hence it should be subservient to nothing, finding no task too heavy, and nothing strong enough to weigh down the shoulders of a man.

Or, if you enjoy living with Greeks also, spend your time with Socrates and with Zeno: the former will show you how to die if it be necessary; the latter how to die before it is necessary. Live with Chrysippus, with Posidonius: they will make you acquainted with things earthly and things heavenly; they will bid you work hard over something more than neat turns of language and phrases mouthed forth for the entertainment of listeners; they will bid you be stout of heart and rise superior to threats. The only harbour safe from the seething storms of this life is scorn of the future, a firm stand, a readiness to receive Fortune's missiles full in the breast, neither skulking nor turning the back.

Pain he endures, death he awaits.

Whoever complains about the death of anyone, is complaining that he was a man. Everyone is bound by the same terms: he who is privileged to be born, is destined to die.

Accept in an unruffled spirit that which is inevitable.

But how foolish it is to set out one's life, when one is not even owner of the morrow!

Therefore, my dear Lucilius, begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.

The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live. And often this living nobly means that you cannot live long.

Socrates is reported to have replied, when a certain person complained of having received no benefit from his travels: "It serves you right! You travelled in your own company!"

What profit is there in crossing the sea and in going from one city to another? If you would escape your troubles, you need not another place but another personality. Perhaps you have reached Athens, or perhaps Rhodes; choose any state you fancy, how does it matter what its character may be? You will be bringing to it your own.

"New friends, however, will not be the same." No, nor will you yourself remain the same; you change with every day and every hour.

If you are wise, mingle these two elements: do not hope without despair, or despair without hope. Line 12 Alternate translation: Hope not without despair, despair not without hope. (translated by Zachariah Rush).

Would you not think him an utter fool who wept because he was not alive a thousand years ago? And is he not just as much of a fool who weeps because he will not be alive a thousand years from now? It is all the same; you will not be, and you were not. Neither of these periods of time belongs to you.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

But the wise man knows that all things are in store for him. Whatever happens, he says: "I knew it."

But no wall can be erected against Fortune which she cannot take by storm; let us strengthen our inner defences. If the inner part be safe, man can be attacked, but never captured.

Do you ask me whom I have conquered? Neither the Persians, nor the far-off Medes, nor any warlike race that lies beyond the Dahae; not these, but greed, ambition, and the fear of death that has conquered the conquerors of the world.

He knows his own strength; he knows that he was born to carry burdens.

So near at hand is freedom, and is anyone still a slave?

What else is there which you would regret to have taken from you? Friends? But who can be a friend to you? Country? What? Do you think enough of your country to be late to dinner? The light of the sun? You would extinguish it, if you could; for what have you ever done that was fit to be seen in the light?

For sometimes it is an act of bravery even to live.

There is no sorrow in the world, when we have escaped from the fear of death.

You will die, not because you are ill, but because you are alive; even when you have been cured, thesame end awaits you; when you have recovered, it will be not death, but ill health, that you have escaped.

No man can suffer both severely and for a long time; Nature, who loves us most tenderly, has so constituted us as to make pain either endurable or short.

"It is nothing-a trifling matter at most; keep a stout heart and it will soon cease"; then in thinking it slight, you will make it slight. Everything depends on opinion; ambition, luxury, greed, hark back to opinion. It is according to opinion that we suffer.

Two elements must therefore be rooted out once for all-the fear of future suffering, and the recollection of past suffering; since the latter no longer concerns me, and the former concerns me not yet.

Is it for this purpose that we are strong-that we may have light burdens to bear?

These actions are not essentially difficult; it is we ourselves that are soft and flabby.

And what is freedom, you ask? It means not being a slave to any circumstance, to any constraint, to any chance; it means compelling Fortune to enter the lists on equal terms.

Let us greedily enjoy our friends, because we do not know how long this privilege will be ours.

Fortune has taken away, but Fortune has given.

The shortest way to wealth is through the contempt of wealth.

Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly.

I am endeavouring to live every day as if it were a complete life.

That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away.

The wise man is joyful, happy and calm, unshaken, he lives on a plane with the gods.

But the wise man is fortified against all inroads; he is alert; he will not retreat before the attack of poverty, or of sorrow, or of disgrace, or of pain. He will walk undaunted both against them and among them.

We are weak, watery beings standing in the midst of unrealities; therefore let us turn our minds to the things that are everlasting.

The much occupied man has no time for wantonness, and it is an obvious commonplace that the evils of leisure can be shaken off by hard work.

Our luxuries have condemned us to weakness; we have ceased to be able to do that which we have long declined to do.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he gives and receives praise.

Would not anyone who is a man have his slumbers broken by a war-trumpet rather than by a chorus of serenaders?

Nothing becomes so offensive so quickly as grief. When fresh it finds someone to console it, but when it becomes chronic, it is ridiculed and rightly.

Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.

The archer must know what he is seeking to hit; then he must aim and control the weapon by his skill. Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind. Chance must necessarily have great influence over our lives, because we live by chance. It is the case with certain men, however, that they do not know that they know certain things. Just as we often go searching for those who stand beside us, so we are apt to forget that the goal of the Supreme Good lies near us.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.

Why should I not regard this as desirable-not because the fire, burns me, but because it does not overcome me?