If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.

Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.

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

Do you know that disease and death must needs overtake us, no matter what we are doing?... what do you wish to be doing when it overtakes you?... If you have anything better to be doing when you are so overtaken, get to work on that.

Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else.

First tell yourself what you want to be, then do what you need to do.

No man is free who is not master of himself... Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose?