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.

Fortune is an evil chain to the body, and vice to the soul.

The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.

Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.

To make anything a habit, do it; to not make it a habit, do not do it; to unmake a habit, do something else in place of it.

I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live.

Anything worth putting off is worth abandoning altogether.