No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.

Things can never touch the soul, but stand inert outside it, so that disquiet can arise only from fancies within.

I seek the truth...it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm.

Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, and unassuming; the friend of justice and godliness; kindly, affectionate, and resolute in your devotion to duty.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.

A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.