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

"You will have less money." Yes, and less trouble. "Less influence." Yes, and less envy.

There stood Mucius, despising the enemy and despising the fire, and watched his hand as it dripped blood over the fire on his enemy's altar, until Porsenna, envying the fame of the hero whose punishment he was advocating, ordered the fire to be removed against the will of the victim.

You must lay aside the burdens of the mind; until you do this, no place will satisfy you.

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.

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.

You are doing an excellent thing, one which will be wholesome for you, if, as you write me, you are persisting in your effort to attain sound understanding; it is foolish to pray for this when you can acquire it from yourself. We do not need to uplift our hands towards heaven, or to beg the keeper of a temple to let us approach his idol's ear, as if in this way our prayers were more likely to be heard. A god is near you, with you, and in you. This is what I mean, Lucilius: there sits a holy spirit within us, one who marks our good and bad deeds, and is our a guardian.

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

Meanwhile, hold fast to this thought, and grip it close: yield not to adversity; trust not to prosperity; keep before your eyes the full scope of Fortune's power, as if she would surely do whatever is in her power to do.

Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your betters.

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

What then? Shall I not follow in the footsteps of my predecessors? I shall indeed use the old road, but if I find one that makes a shorter cut and is smoother to travel, I shall open the new road. Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized. And there is plenty of it left even for posterity to discover.

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

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

He that owns himself has lost nothing. But how few men are blessed with ownership of self!

I cannot help believing that Mucius was all the more lucky because he manipulated the flames as calmly as if he were holding out his hand to the manipulator. He had wiped out all his previous mistakes; he finished the war unarmed and maimed; and with that stump of a hand he conquered two kings.

If one doesn't know his mistakes, he won't want to correct them.

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

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

A golden bit does not make a better horse.

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.

Our feeling about every obligation depends in each case upon the spirit in which the benefit is conferred; we weigh not the bulk of the gift, but the quality of the good-will which prompted it.

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

I do not know whether I shall make progress; but I should prefer to lack success rather than to lack faith.

Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.

Let another say. "Perhaps the worst will not happen." You yourself must say. "Well, what if it does happen? Let us see who wins! Perhaps it happens for my best interests; it may be that such a death will shed credit upon my life."

For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years be behind us are in death's hands.

You will thus understand that what you fear is either insignificant or short-lived.

He who boasts of his descent, praises the deeds of another.

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself." That was indeed a great benefit; such a person can never be alone. You may be sure that such a man is a friend to all mankind.

One crime has to be concealed by another.

A trifling debt makes a man your debtor; a large one makes him an enemy.

For love of bustle is not industry - it is only the restlessness of a hunted mind.

You do not know where death awaits you; so be ready for it everywhere.

He who does not prevent a crime, when he can, encourages it.

Socrates was ennobled by the hemlock draught. Wrench from Cato's hand his sword, the vindicator of liberty, and you deprive him of the greatest share of his glory.

Lay hold of today's task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow's. While we are postponing, life speeds by.

Mucius put his hand into the fire. It is painful to be burned; but how much more painful to inflict such suffering upon oneself!

Tis the first art of kings, the power to suffer hate.

But both courses are to be avoided; you should not copy the bad simply because they are many, nor should you hate the many because they are unlike you.

Impurity is caused by attitude, not events.

Prove your words by your deeds.

No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.

"What," say you, "are you giving me advice? Indeed, have you already advised yourself, already corrected your own faults? Is this the reason why you have leisure to reform other men?" No, I am not so shameless as to undertake to cure my fellow-men when I am ill myself. I am, however, discussing with you troubles which concern us both, and sharing the remedy with you, just as if we were lying ill in the same hospital.

Mercy often means giving death, not life.

There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.

What fools these mortals be!

Mucius might have accomplished something more successful in that camp, but never anything more brave.

Arms observe no bounds; nor can the wrath of the sword, once drawn, be easily checked or stayed; war delights in blood.

Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach.