...the sole thing of which any man can be deprived is the present; since this is all he owns, and nobody can lose what is not his.

In the morning, when you are sluggish about getting up, let this thought be present: 'I am rising to a man's work.'

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

Only to the rational animal is it given to follow voluntarily what happens; but simply to follow is a necessity imposed on all.

Anything that is beautiful is beautiful just as it is. Praise forms no part of its beauty, since praise makes things neither better nor worse. This applies even more to what it commonly called beautiful: natural objects, for example, or works of art. True beauty has no need of anything beyond itself.

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.