“We all carry the seeds of greatness within us, but we need an image as a point of focus in order that they may sprout.”

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.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

He who is not happy with little will never be happy with much.

Don’t live by your own rules, but in harmony with nature.

Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.

When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

No matter where you find yourself, comport yourself as if you were a distinguished person.

It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous, even death is terrible only if we fear it.