The greater the Difficulty the more Glory in surmounting it, and the loss of false Joys secures to us a much better Possession of real ones.

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.

I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.

Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.

Men, believing in myths, will always fear something terrible, everlasting punishment as certain or probable . . . Men base all these fears not on mature opinions, but on irrational fancies, that they are more disturbed by fear of the unknown than by facing facts. Peace of mind lies in being delivered from all these fears.

Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist.

The noble soul occupies itself with wisdom and friendship.