We all dread a bodily paralysis, and would make use of every contrivance to avoid it; but none of us is troubled about a paralysis of the soul.

It is wicked to withdraw from being useful to the needy, and cowardly to give way to the worthless.

Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase. At first, keep quiet and count the days when you were not angry: "I used to be angry every day, then every other day: next, every two, then every three days!" and if you succeed in passing thirty days, sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving.

We ought to flee the friendship of the wicked, and the enmity of the good.

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.