It is right that man should love those who have offended him. He will do so when he remembers that all men are his relations, and that it is through ignorance and involuntarily that they sin,--and then we all die so soon.

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

In the end, what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes, welcoming it as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from the same source and fountain as yourself.

The honest and good man ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.

Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.

You are making an inopportune rejection of what Nature has given you today, if all your mind is set on what men will say of you tomorrow.

Live your life as if you are ready to say goodbye to it at any moment, as if the time left for you were some pleasant surprise.