Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

Once you have done a man a service, what more reward would you have? Is it not enough to have obeyed the laws of your own nature, without expecting to be paid for it?

This is the mark of a perfect character - to pass through each day as though it were the last, without agitation, without torpor, and without pretense.

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

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

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.

Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.