The second step: Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being; remind yourself what nature demands of people. Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy.

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

Nothing natural is evil.

He who follows reason in all things is both tranquil and active at the same time, and also cheerful and collected.

Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.

Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose – not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.

Objective judgement, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance, now, at this very moment – of all external events. That’s all you need.

How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.

You’re subject to sorrow, fear, jealousy, anger and inconsistency. That’s the real reason you should admit that you are not wise.

Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.

Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.

For God’s sake, stop honouring externals, quit turning yourself into the tool of mere matter, or of people who can supply you or deny you those material things.

As the same fire assumes different shapes when it consumes objects differing in shape, so does the one self take the shape of every creature in whom he is present.

A man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season.

Is any man afraid of change? What can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature? And can you take a hot bath unless the wood for the fire undergoes a change? And can you be nourished unless the food undergoes a change? And can anything else that is useful be accomplished without change? Do you not see then that for yourself also to change is just the same, and equally necessary for the universal nature?

Receive without pride, let go without attachment. 

Success or failure is caused more by mental attitude than by mental capacity.

When you have assumed these names – good, modest, truthful, rational, a man of equanimity, and magnanimous – take care that you do not change these names; and if you should lose them, quickly return to them.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

Consider that before long you will be nobody and nowhere, nor will any of the things exist that you now see, nor any of those who are now living. For all things are formed by nature to change and be turned and to perish in order that other things in continuous succession may exist.

In a word, if there is a god, all is well; and if chance rules, do not also be governed by it.

So I look for the best and am prepared for the opposite.

Treat whatever happens as wholly natural; not novel or hard to deal with; but familiar and easily handled.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

Confine yourself to the present.

Straight, not straightened.

Those who truly fail in my eyes are the ones who never try at all. The ones who sit on the couch and whine and moan and wait for the world to change for them.

When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.

Such a simple concept, yet so true: that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time.

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.

To live happily is an inward power of the soul.

You can commit injustice by doing nothing.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

What illusion about myself do I entertain?

The rational animal is consequently also a social animal.

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.

Glory’s an empty, changeable thing, as fickle as the weather.

Poverty is the mother of crime.

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Nothing happens to anyone that he can’t endure.

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.

Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.

Keep at it… As a blazing fire takes whatever you throw on it, and makes it light and flame.

When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstance, revert at once to yourself and don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help. You’ll have a better grasp of harmony if you keep going back to it.

So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?