The man who does something under orders is not unhappy; he is unhappy who does something against his will.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

He that will do no good offices after a disappointment must stand still, and do just nothing at all. The plough goes on after a barren year; and while the ashes are yet warm, we raise a new house upon the ruins of a former.

Death either destroys or unhusks us. If it means liberation, better things await us when our burden s gone: if destruction, nothing at all awaits us; blessings and curses are abolished.

Many person might have achieved wisdom had they not supposed that they already possessed it.

The man who has learned to triumph over sorrow wears his miseries as though they were sacred fillets upon his brow; and nothing is so entirely admirable as a man bravely wretched.

Authority founded on injustice is never of long duration.