Everything is here for a purpose, from horses to vine shoots. What's surprising about that? Even the sun will tell you, "I have a purpose," and the other goods as well.

Discard everything except these few truths: we can live only in the present moment, in this brief now; all the rest of our life is dead and buried or shrouded in uncertainty. Short is the life we lead, and small our patch of earth.

Nothing that goes on in anyone else's mind can harm you.

How many together with whom I came into the world are already gone out of it.

It's silly to try to escape other people's faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.

One universe made up all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of being, and one law, the reason shared by all thinking creatures, and one truth.

The world is mere change, and this life, opinion.