Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening.

We do not choose our own parts in life, and have nothing to do with those parts. Our duty is confined to playing them well.

When men are unhappy, they do not imagine they can ever cease to be so; and when some calamity has fallen on them, they do not see how they can get rid of it. Nevertheless, both arrive; and the gods have ordered it so, in the end men seek it from the gods

Events do not just happen, but arrive by appointment.

Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to.

You may fetter my leg, but Zeus himself cannot get the better of my free will.

If any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone. For God hath made all men to enjoy felicity and constancy of good.