If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.

You need to be prepared for firm decisions and action, without losing gentleness towards those who obstruct or abuse you. It's as great a weakness to be angry with them as it is to abandon your plan of action and give up through fear.

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

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

How can a man find a sensible way to live? One way and one only- Philosophy. And my philosophy means keeping that vital spark within you free from damage and degradation, using it to transcend pain and pleasure, doing everything with a purpose, avoiding lies and hypocrisy, not relying on another person's actions or failings. To accept everything that comes, and everything that is given, as coming from that same spiritual source.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.