Consider how many do not even know your name, and how many will soon forget it, and how those who now praise you will presently blame you.

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.

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.

It is not the weight of the future or the past that is pressing upon you, but ever that of the present alone. Even this burden, too, can be lessened if you confine it strictly to its own limits.

Embellish the soul with simplicity, with prudence, and everything which is neither virtuous nor vicious. Love all men. Walk according to God; for, as a poet hath said, his laws govern all.

Whosoever does wrong, wrongs himself; whosoever does injustice, does it to himself, making himself evil.

He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form.