I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed.

Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.

Consider in what condition both in body and soul a man should be when he is overtaken by death; and consider the shortness of life, the boundless abyss of time past and future, the feebleness of all matter.

No form of nature is inferior to art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.

To live each day as though one's last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing - here is the perfection of character.

Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.

Why should anyone be afraid of change? What can take place without it? What can be more pleasing or more suitable to universal nature? Can you take your bath without the firewood undergoing a change? Can you eat without the food undergoing a change? And can anything useful be done without change? Don't you see that for you to change is just the same, and is equally necessary for universal nature?