Do not disturb yourself by picturing your life as a whole; do not assemble in your mind the many and varied troubles which have come to you in the past and will come again in the future, but ask yourself with regard to every present difficulty: 'What is there in this that is unbearable and beyond endurance?'

Remind oneself continually of one of those who practiced virtue in days gone by.

The mind in itself wants nothing, unless it creates a want for itself; therefore it is both free from perturbation and unimpeded, if it does not perturb and impede itself.

Men despise one another and flatter one another; and men wish to raise themselves above one another, and crouch before one another.

The passing minute is every man's equal possession but what has once gone by is not ours.

...in the ways of Nature there is no evil to be found.

I seek the truth...it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm.