WednesdayJul 16, 2025
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
Never esteem anything as of advantage to thee that shall make thee break thy word or lose thy self-respect.
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
At day's first light have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that 'I am rising for the work of man.'
Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.
Death hangs over thee, While thou still live, while thou may, do good.
Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.
As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.
By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.
In mans life, time is but a moment; being, a flux; sense is dim; the material frame corruptible; soul, an eddy of breath; fortune a thing inscrutable, and fame precarious.
A man's life is what his thoughts make of it. Our life is what our thoughts make it.
This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs.
Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.
Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.
Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life, there, if one must speak out, the real man.
As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion.
Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to the dust.
Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.
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.
Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.
In the morning, when you are sluggish about getting up, let this thought be present: 'I am rising to a man's work.'
If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.
Men seek out retreats for themselves in the country, by the seaside, on the moutains ... But all this is unphilosophical to the last degree ... when thou canst at a moment's notice retire into thyself.
You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.
To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.
Think of this doctrine That reasoning beings were created for one another's sake; That to be patient is a branch of justice; and that we often sin without intending it.
Remember this, that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
Whatever may befall thee, it was preordained for thee from everlasting.
How powerful is man! He is able to do all that God wishes him to do. He is able to accept all that God sends upon him.
It is a shameful thing for the soul to faint while the body still perseveres.
A man should be upright, not be kept upright.
A good disposition is invincible, if it be genuine.
The passing minute is every man's equal possession but what has once gone by is no longer ours.
If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.
In every pain let this thought be present, that there is no dishonor in it, nor does it make the governing intelligence worse. Indeed, in the case of most pains, let this remark of Epicurus aid thee, that pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility, and not to think that pain is an evil.... It will suffice thee to remember as concerning pain ... that the mind may, by stopping all manner of commerce and sympathy with the body, still retain its own tranquility.
Nothing can come out of nothing, any more than a thing can go back to nothing.
If it is not seemly, do it not; if it is not true, speak it not.
This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to ones fate.
Let thy chief fort and place of defense be a mind free from passions. A stronger place and better fortified than this, hath no man.
Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.
Men are created one for another, either then teach them or bear with.
Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.
Look beneath the surface; let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee.
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.
And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.
Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of manyesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.
Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.
Your life is what your thoughts make it.
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing; the main thing is to stand firm and be ready for an unforeseen attack.
Life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.
A wrong-doer is often a man that has left something undone, not always he that has done something.
Remember that to change your mind and follow him who sets you right is to be none the less free than you were before.
A person's life is dyed with the color of his imagination.
I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.
One man is proud when he has caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another when he has taken wild boars, and another when he has taken bears ... Are these not robbers?
How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.
How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.
Whatever happens at all happens as it should; thou wilt find this true, if thou shouldst watch closely.
Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
Let goodness go with the doing.
Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
That which is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bees.
Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those that follow after.
Let thine occupations be few, saith the sage, if thou wouldst lead a tranquil life.
When we consider we are bound to be serviceable to mankind, and bear with their faults, we shall perceive there is a common tie of nature and relation between us.
Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.
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.
To them that ask: Where hast thou seen the Gods, or how knowest thou certainly that there be Gods, that thou art so devout in their worship? I answer: Neither have I seen my own soul, and yet I respect and honor it.
All is ephemeral fame and the famous as well.
Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.
Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achieving of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee.
We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.
As a horse when he has run, a dog when he has caught the game, a bee when it has made the honey, so 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. Must a man then be one of these, who in a manner acts thus without observing it? Yes. What more dost thou want when thou hast done a man a service? Art thou not content that thou hast done something conformable to thy nature, and dost thou seek to be paid for it, just as if the eye demanded a recompense for seeing, or the feet should demand a recompense for walking?
Spend your brief moment according to natures law, and serenely greet the journeys end as an olive falls when it is ripe, blessing the branch that bare it, and giving thanks to the tree that gave it life.
The constant recollection of death is the test of human conduct.
Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already. Of the things you have, select the best: and then reflect how eagerly they would have been sought if you did not have them.
Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility....
Think often of how swiftly all things pass away and are no more the works of Nature and the works of man. The substance of the Universe, matter, is like unto a river that flows on forever. All things are not only in a constant state of change, but they are the cause of constant and infinite change in other things. Upon a narrow ledge thou standouts! Behind thee, the bottomless abyss of the Past! In front of thee, the Future that will swallow up all things that are now. Over what things, then, in this present life wilt thou, O foolish man, be disquieted or exalted making thyself wretched; seeing that they can vex thee only for a time a brief, brief time!
How easy it is to repel and erase every impression which is troublesome or unwelcome, and immediately to be tranquil.
That which comes after ever conforms to that which has gone before.
Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.
Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it.... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.
Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.
You exist but as a part inherent in a greater whole. Do not live as though you had a thousand years before you. The common due impends; while you live, and while you may, be good.
Love the little trade which thou hast learned, and be content therewith.
How ridiculous and unrealistic is the man who is astonished at anything that happens in life.
No form of Nature is inferior to Art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms.
When thou art above measure angry, bethink thee how momentary is man's life.
The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
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.
Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy soulfor the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then, with a continuous series of such thoughts as thesethat where a man can live, there if he will, he can also live well.
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.
Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Poverty is the mother of crime.
Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy soul - for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.
The best sort of revenge is not to be like him who did the injury.
Death is a release from the impressions of the senses, and from desires that make us their puppets, and from the vagaries of the mind, and from the hard service of the flesh.
Despise not death, but welcome it, for Nature wills it like all else.
And what after all is everlasting fame? All together vanity
Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; But if anything is within the powers and province of man, Believe that it is within your own compass also.
The art of living is more like that of wrestling than of dancing. The main thing is to stand firm and be ready for an unforeseen attack.
Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.
Ask thyself, daily, to how many ill-minded persons thou hast shown a kind disposition.
What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat.
Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.
Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.
Forget not on every occasion to ask thyself, is this no tone of the unnecessary things?
How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.
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