A great estate is a great disadvantage to those who do not know how to use it, for nothing is more common than to see wealthy persons live scandalously and miserably; riches do them no service in order to virtue and happiness; therefore 'tis precept and principle, not an estate, that makes a man good for something.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

Because your own strength is unequal to a task, do not assume it is beyond the powers of man.

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.

Remember: Matter: how tiny your share of it. Time: how brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate: how small a role you play in it.

By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.

The main thing we were made for is to work with others.