Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.

How easy it is to repel and release every impression which is troublesome and immediately to be tranquil.

Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

Thou seest how few be the things, the which if a man has at his command his life flows gently on and is divine.

Nothing proceeds from nothingness, as also nothing passes away into non-existence.

Always follow these two rules: first, act only on what your reasoning mind proposes for the good of humanity, and second, change your opinion if someone shows you it's wrong. This change of mind must proceed only from the conviction that it's both correct and for the common good, but not because it will give you pleasure and make you popular.

Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, "Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?" neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility. . . .