Don't let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole.

If the gods care not for me and for my children, There is a reason for it.

All that is harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you.

Reflect often upon the rapidity with which all existing things, or things coming into existence, sweep past us and are carried away.

As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home and abroad, and of the sort of society they frequent; and the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, has no value for him.

Does a man shrink from change? Why, what can come into being save by change?

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.