Seek to be the purple thread in the long white gown.

We must ever bear in mind --that apart from the will there is nothing good or bad, and that we must not try to anticipate or to direct events, but merely to accept them with intelligence.

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.

It is difficulties that show what men are.

Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.

What disturbs people's minds are not events but their judgments on events.

Be careful whom you associate with. It is human to imitate the habits of those with whom we interact. We inadvertently adopt their interests, their opinions, their values, and their habit of interpreting events.