We are sure to get the better of fortune if we do but grapple with her.

All we see and admire today will burn in the universal fire that ushers in a new, just, happy world.

Philosophy takes as her aim the state of happiness...she shows us what are real and what are only apparent evils. She strips men's minds of empty thinking, bestows a greatness that is solid and administers a check to greatness where it is puffed up and all an empty show; she sees that we are left no doubt about the difference between what is great and what is bloated.

A great step toward independence is a good-humoured stomach.

Our minds must relax: they will rise better and keener after rest. Just as you must not force fertile farmland, as uninterrupted productivity will soon exhaust it, so constant effort will sap our mental vigour, while a short period of rest and relaxation will restore our powers. Unremitting effort leads to a kind of mental dullness and lethargy.

A coward calls himself cautious, a miser thrifty.

It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.