Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents." Translation by Sharon Lebell

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

Two principles we should always have ready — that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.

What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others.

If someone irritates you, it is only your own response that is irritating you. Therefore, when anyone seems to be provoking you, remember that it is only your judgment of the incident that provokes you. -

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

Unremarkable lives are marked by the fear of not looking capable when trying something new.