We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.

If your heart is quite set upon a crown, make and put on one of roses, for it will make the prettier appearance.

You will do the greatest service to the state if you shall raise, not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses rather than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses.

It is not events that disturb the minds of men, but the view they take of them.

Try not to react merely in the moment. Pull back from the situation. Take a wider view. Compose yourself.

Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.

So you wish to conquer in the Olympic Games, my friend? And I, too... But first mark the conditions and the consequences. You will have to put yourself under discipline; to eat by rule, to avoid cakes and sweetmeats; to take exercise at the appointed hour whether you like it or not, in cold and heat; to abstain from cold drinks and wine at your will. Then, in the conflict itself you are likely enough to dislocate your wrist or twist your ankle, to swallow a great deal of dust, to be severely thrashed, and after all of these things, to be defeated.