Learn to distinguish what you can and can't control. Within our control are our own opinions, aspirations, desires and the things that repel us. They are directly subject to our influence.

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

The foolish and the uneducated have little use for freedom. Only the educated are free.

Nothing great is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is. If you say to me now that you want a fig, I will answer to you that it requires time: let it flower first, then put forth fruit, and then ripen.

Do nothing in a depressed mood, nor as one afflicted, nor as thinking that you are in misery, for no one compels you to that.

Consider first the nature of the business in hand; then examine thy own nature, whether thou hast strength to undertake it.

It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?