It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. ... The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.

We are as answerable for what we give as for what we receive; nay, the misplacing of a benefit is worse than the not receiving of it; for the one is another person's fault, but the other is mine.

Refuse to let the thought of death bother you: nothing is grim when we have escaped that fear.

Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: Not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity, and always to take full note of fortune's habit of behaving just as she pleases, treating her as if she were actually going to do everything it is in her power to do. Whatever you have been expecting for some time comes as less of a shock.

Who needs forgiveness, should the same extend with readiness.

Whatever one of us blames in another, each one will find in his own heart.

Fortune's not content with knocking a man down; she sends him spinning head over heels, crash upon crash.