Thanks be to blessed Nature that she has made what is necessary easy to obtain, and what is not easy unnecessary.

Freedom is the greatest fruit of self sufficiency.

Any man who does not think that what he has is more than ample, is an unhappy man, even if he is the master of the whole world.

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men in their various relations with each other, in whatever circumstances they may be, that they will neither injure nor be injured.

A strong belief in fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand, there is a comfort in the thought that God will be moved by our prayers.

We begin every act of choice and avoidance from pleasure, and it is to pleasure that we return using our experience of pleasure as the criterion of every good thing.