A good mind possesses a kingdom.

Take your fill when the cask is first opened and when it is nearly spent, but midways be sparing: it is poor saving when you come to the lees.

The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.

Who is everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.

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

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

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

Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.

No easy way leads from the earth to heaven..

Impurity is caused by attitude, not events.

One crime has to be concealed by another.

Do you seek Alcides' equal? None is, except himself.

Unrighteous fortune seldom spares the highest worth; no one with safety can long front so frequent perils. Whom calamity oft passes by she finds at last.

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

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

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

Of war men ask the outcome, not the cause.

Who can be forced has not learned how to die.

Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.

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

Mercy often means giving death, not life.

The man who hopes for naught at least has naught to fear.

Unjust dominion cannot be eternal.

Who profits by a sin has done the sin.

We give voice to our trivial cares, but suffer enormities in silence.

No man has ever been so far advanced by Fortune that she did not threaten him as greatly as she had previously indulged him.

I commend you and rejoice in the fact that you are persistent in your studies, and that, putting all else aside, you make it each day your endeavour to become a better man.

What is wisdom? Always desiring the same things, and always refusing the same things.

Press on, therefore, as you have begun; perhaps you will be led to perfection, or to a point which you alone understand is still short of perfection.

Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's power to live long.

It is indeed foolish to be unhappy now because you may be unhappy at some future time.

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

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

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

It was a great deed to conquer Carthage, but a greater deed to conquer death.

Remember, however, before all else, to strip things of all that disturbs and confuses, and to see what each is at bottom; you will then comprehend that they contain nothing fearful except the actual fear.

I may become a poor man; I shall then be one among many. I may be exiled; I shall then regard myself as born in the place to which I shall be sent. They may put me in chains. What then? Am I free from bonds now? Behold this clogging burden of a body, to which nature has fettered me! "I shall die," you say; you mean to say "I shall cease to run the risk of sickness; I shall cease to run the risk of imprisonment; I shall cease to run the risk of death."

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

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

"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.

Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy; even if some obstacle arise, it is but like an intervening cloud, which floats beneath the sun but never prevails against it.

Prove your words by your deeds.

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

Of course, however, the living voice and the intimacy of a common life will help you more than the written word. You must go to the scene of action, first, because men put more faith in their eyes than in their ears, and second, because the way is long if one follows precepts, but short and helpful, if one follows patterns.

"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.

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.

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.

Live among men as if God beheld you; speak with God as if men were listening.

The best ideas are common property.

... the only contestant who can confidently enter the lists is the man who has seen his own blood, who has felt his teeth rattle beneath his opponent's fist, who has been tripped and felt the full force of his adversary's charge, who has been downed in body but not in spirit, one who, as often as he falls, rises again with greater defiance than ever.