Without a purpose, nothing should be done.

A man is a little soul carrying around a courpse.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

Give your heart to the trade you have learnt, and draw refreshment from it. Let the rest of your days be spent as one who has whole-heartedly committed his all to the gods and is thenceforth no man's master or slave.

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to one's fate.