It is usually the case with most men that their nature is so constituted that they pity those who fare badly and envy those who fare well.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. [They are the two sides of a coin, so learning how to manage fear through learning, understanding, rationality, controlled imagination, preparation, mental focus (including distraction) and a gratitude attitude is very helpful.]

Everyone endeavors as much as possible to make others love what he loves, and to hate what he hates... This effort to make everyone approve what we love or hate is in truth ambition, and so we see that each person by nature desires that other persons should live according to his way of thinking.

There is no fear without some hope, and no hope without some fear.

Nothing in nature is by chance... Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge.

Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them.

He who wishes to revenge injuries by reciprocal hatred will live in misery. But he who endeavors to drive away hatred by means of love, fights with pleasure and confidence; he resists equally one or many men, and scarcely needs at all the help of fortune. Those whom he conquers yield joyfully