People generally despise where they flatter, and cringe to those they would gladly overtop; so that truth and ceremony are two things.

Everything is but what we think it.

The passing minute is every man's equal possession but what has once gone by is not ours.

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, 'This is a misfortune' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.'

No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such

Do not fear death, but welcome it, since it too comes from nature. For just as we are young and grow old, and flourish and reach maturity, have teeth and a beard and grey hairs, conceive, become pregnant, and bring forth new life, and all the other natural processes that follow the seasons of our existence, so also do we have death. A thoughtful person will never take death lightly, impatiently, or scornfully, but will wait for it as one of life's natural processes.