The materials are indifferent, but the use we make of them is not a matter of indifference.

Never say of anything I have lost it, only say that I have given it back.

Shall I show you the sinews of a philosopher? What sinews are those? - A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised; careful resolutions; unerring decisions.

A half-hearted spirit has no power. Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Average people enter into their endeavors headlong and without care.

We must be afraid of neither poverty nor exile nor imprisonment; of fear itself only should we be afraid.

I have to die. If it is now, well then I die now; if later, then now I will take my lunch, since the hour for lunch has arrived - and dying I will tend to later.

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.