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

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.

It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.

Be cheerful, also, and seek not external help, nor the peace which others give. A man must stand straight, and not be kept straight by others.

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this nature, that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so secures tranquility.

That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.