The operations of the will are in our power; not in our power are the body, the body’s parts, property, parents, siblings, children, country or friends.

Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, “Why is this so unbearable? Why can’t I endure it?” You’ll be embarrassed to answer.

True good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, good actions.

It is in our power to have no opinion about a thing and not to be disturbed in our soul; for things themselves have no natural power to form our judgments.

I see no virtue that is opposed to justice; but I see a virtue that is opposed to love of pleasure, and that is temperance.

Settle on the type of person you want to be and stick to it, whether alone or in company.

It will even do to socialize with men of good character, in order to model your life on theirs, whether you choose someone living or someone from the past.

Remember, too, on every occasion that leads you to vexation to apply this principle: not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune.

Do not be perturbed, for all things are according to the nature of the universal; and in a little time you will be nobody and nowhere.

If you want to be a man of honour and a man of your word, who is going to stop you? You say you don’t want to be obstructed or forced to do something against your will – well, who is going to force you to desire things that you don’t approve, or dislike something against your better judgement?

Consider at what price you sell your integrity; but please, for God’s sake, don’t sell it cheap.

It is in your power whenever you choose to retire into yourself. For there is no retreat that is quieter or freer from trouble than a man’s own soul.

Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.

Independence and unvarying reliability, and to pay attention to nothing, no matter how fleetingly, except the logos.

Good morals and the government of my temper.

Compassion. Unwavering adherence to decisions, once he’d reached them. Indifference to superficial honors. Hard work. Persistence.

They saw him for what he was: a man tested by life, accomplished, unswayed by flattery, qualified to govern both himself and them. 

That he respected tradition without needing to constantly congratulate himself for safeguarding our traditional values.

To be the same in all circumstances – intense pain, the loss of a child, chronic illness. And to see clearly, from his example, that a man can show both strength and flexility.

Do not let your thoughts at once embrace all the various troubles that you may expect to befall you: but on every occasion ask yourself, “What is there in this that is intolerable and past bearing?” For you will be ashamed to confess.

If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.

Let it make no difference to you whether you are cold or warm, if you are doing your duty; and whether you are drowsy or satisfied with sleep; and whether ill-spoken of or praised; and whether dying or doing something else.

Remember this, that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

If then there is an invincible necessity, why do you resist?

For all their compliments do verses pay? They mayn’t, yet these same poems make me gay.

Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.

If you learn that someone is speaking ill of you, don’t try to defend yourself against the rumours; respond instead with, ‘Yes, and he doesn’t know the half of it, because he could have said more’.

Each day provides its own gifts. 

If someone responds to insult like a rock, what has the abuser gained with his invective?

He who has a vehement desire for posthumous fame does not consider that every one of those who remember him will himself also die very soon.

Let us overlook many things in those who are like antagonists in the gymnasium. For it is in our power, as I said, to get out of the way and to have no suspicion or hatred.

Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

It is just charming how people boast about qualities beyond their control. For instance, ‘I am better than you because I have many estates, while you are practically starving’; or, ‘I’m a consul,’ ‘I’m a governor,’ or ‘I have fine curly hair.’

How strangely men act. They will not praise those who are living at the same time and living with themselves; but to be themselves praised by posterity, by those whom they have never seen or ever will see, this they set much value on.

“A cucumber is bitter.” Throw it away. “There are briars in the road.” Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, “And why were such things made in the world?”

Always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are, and what was yesterday a speck of semen tomorrow will be a mummy or ashes.

Under no circumstances ever say ‘I have lost something,’ only ‘I returned it.

Do you have reason? I have. Why then do you not use it?

Have I been made for this, to lie under the blankets and keep myself warm?

‘But I get to wear a crown of gold.’ If you have your heart set on wearing crowns, why not make one out of roses – you will look even more elegant in that.

Who exactly are these people that you want to be admired by? Aren’t they the same people you are in the habit of calling crazy? And is this your life ambition, then – to win the approval of lunatics?

Consider what men are when they are eating, sleeping, coupling, evacuating, and so forth. Then what kind of men they are when they are imperious and arrogant, or angry and scolding from their elevated place.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks. 

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

Do little, if you want contentment of mind.

Misfortune nobly born is good fortune.

To do harm is to do yourself harm. To do an injustice is to do yourself an injustice.

If something does not make a person worse in himself, neither does it make his life worse, nor does it harm him without or within.

Death and life, success and failure, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty, all these happen to good and bad alike, and they are neither noble nor shameful – and hence neither good nor bad.