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

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

Everything is born from change. ...there is nothing nature loves more that to alter what exists and make new things like it. All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it. You think the only seeds are the one that make plants and children? Go deeper.

When you have done a good deed that another has had the benefit of, why do you need a third reward-as fools do-praise for having done well or looking for a favor in return.

Man is born for deeds of kindness.

And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.

Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground.