You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind.

A man who suffers or stresses before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary

Watch over yourself. Be your own accuser, then your judge; ask yourself grace sometimes, and, if there is need, impose upon yourself some pain.

There are no greater wretches in the world than many of those whom people in general take to be happy.

There is this blessing, that while life has but one entrance, it has exits innumerable, and as I choose the house in which I live, the ship in which I will sail, so will I choose the time and manner of my death.

If virtue precede us every step will be safe.

He shows a greater mind who does not restrain his laughter, than he who does not deny his tears.