“You can be happy if you know this secret: Some things are within your power to control and some things are not.”

Events do not just happen, but arrive by appointment.

Don’t be concerned with other people’s impressions of you. They are dazzled and deluded by appearances. Stick with your purpose. This alone will strengthen your will and give your life coherence.

Anything worth putting off is worth abandoning altogether.

Don’t consent to be hurt and you won’t be hurt – this is a choice over which you have control.

If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.

What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are.

What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are.

Freedom and happiness are won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.

Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.

Try not to react merely in the moment. Pull back from the situation. Take a wider view. Compose yourself.

All religions must be tolerated for every man must get to heaven in his own way.

Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.

Don’t demand or expect that events happen as you would wish them do. Accept events as they actually happen. That way, peace is possible.

Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle.