“When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it.”

If you wish to live a life free from sorrow, think of what is going to happen as if it had already happened.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

Desire and happiness cannot live together.

Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control.

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

We can’t control the impressions others form about us, and the effort to do so only debases our character.

It’s time to stop being vague. If you wish to be an extraordinary person, if you wish to be wise, then you should explicitly identify the kind of person you aspire to become.

Men are not troubled by things themselves, but by their thoughts about them.

Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do. Hold to your true aspirations no matter what is going on around you.

We all dread a bodily paralysis, and would make use of every contrivance to avoid it; but none of us is troubled about a paralysis of the soul.

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.