It is not the events but our viewpoint toward events that is the determining factor. We ought to be more concerned about removing wrong thoughts from the mind than removing tumors and abscesses from the body.

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.

It is not my place in society that makes me well off, but my judgements, and these I can carry with me... These alone are my own and cannot be taken away.

No living being is held by anything so strongly as its own needs.

It is better to advise than upbraid, for the one corrects the erring; the other only convicts them.

Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task.

The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.