It has been ordained that there be summer and winter, abundance and dearth, virtue and vice, and all such opposites for the harmony of the whole, and (Zeus) has given each of us a body, property, and companions.

Lampis the ship owner, on being asked how he acquired his great wealth, replied, My great wealth was acquired with no difficulty, but my small wealth, my first gains, with much labor.

Do not strive for things occurring to occur as you wish, but wish the things occurring as they occur, and you will flow well.

Never look for your work in one place and your progress in another.

To a longer and worse life, a shorter and better is by all means to be preferred.

We need to regularly stop and take stock; to sit down and determine within ourselves which things are worth valuing and which things are not; which risks are worth the cost and which are not. Even the most confusing or hurtful aspects of life can be made more tolerable by clear seeing and by choice.

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