“The perfection of character is this — to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without laziness, without pretense.”

“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.”

“Remember how long you've been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you, and you didn't use them. At some point you have to recognize what world it is that you belong to; what power rules it and from what source you spring; that there is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don't use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.”

“The best way to avenge yourself is to not be like the wrongdoer.”

“People try to get away from it all — to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You too wish to get away. But that is undignified. You can get away from it all whenever you want, by retiring into yourself. Nowhere can a person find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”

“Is any man afraid of change? Why, what can take place without a change? Can anything that is useful or for the good of the universe be accomplished without change? Do you not see, then, that change in yourself is of the same order, and no less necessary to the nature of the universe?”

“Wipe out the imagination. Stop the pulling of the strings. Confine yourself to the present.”

“The people you deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly.”

“Everything that happens is either endurable or not.”

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

“The best revenge is not to be like that.”

“Do the right thing. The rest doesn't matter.”

“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity.”

“Contemplation is the highest activity of the human soul, and the one that brings the most perfect happiness.”

“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

“Not as though thou hadst thousands of years to live. Death hangs over thee: whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.”

“Think of what you have rather than what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.”

“The commonwealth is the property of the people: the people is the multitude bound together by the agreement on what is right and the community of interest — and the republic that has lost the justice has lost the name.”

“The body can be hurt, but the soul is untouched: the harm that reaches the body ends at the body, and the person who knows this is free — for no one can injure what they cannot reach.”

“Welcome the criticism, for the honest critic is the examiner of the soul: the person who corrects you gives you the gift of the discovered error, and the person who flatters you leaves you with it.”

“When the hour comes, depart quietly: death is the natural completion, and the person who has lived in agreement with nature does not cling to the banquet when the dinner is done.”

“The art of living is the art of wanting: want what is up to you, and you will never want in vain; want what is not up to you, and you will be the slave of the want.”

“Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will be serene.”

“The will is the one thing that is truly yours: it cannot be compelled, it cannot be hindered, and its freedom is the freedom that no tyrant, no fortune, and no death can take away.”

“He is free who lives as he wishes, whom no one can compel, whom no one can hinder, whom no one can force to do anything against his will.”

“What is not your own is not your concern: if you think that what others think of you is up to you, you will be their slave, and no one is master of what others think. Release the craving for approval, and you will be free.”

“The slave is equal to the king, if he is wise; and the king is a slave, if he is foolish. For freedom is not the absence of chains but the mastery of the soul, and no one can enslave the person who is master of himself.”

“It is not the things themselves that disturb us, but our judgments about them: death is nothing terrible — else it would have appeared so to Socrates — but the judgment that death is terrible is the terrible thing.”

“Some things are up to us and some are not. Up to us are opinion, impulse, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever is our own doing; not up to us are body, property, reputation, office, and, in a word, whatever is not our own doing.”

“Keep watch on your impressions: the mind is entered through them, and the person who guards the gate has the citadel. The impression is not yours to choose, but the assent is yours — and the assent is the act of the free.”

“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I am going to do what I was born for, the things I came into the world to do?”

“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”

“Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom yourself 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. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.”

“You may leave life at any moment. Have this freedom in your mind, in your acts, in your thoughts. Let death be present to your thoughts, and let it teach you to live: not in fear, but in the fullness of the present.”

“Be like the headland against which the waves break and break: it stands firm, and the waters settle at its feet. Be like the olive tree: when it is beaten, it gives its fruit. The hardship is the beating, and the virtue is the fruit.”

“Expect nothing from the world, and you will not be disappointed by it: the person who has released the expectation has released the disappointment, and the person who has released the fear has released the slavery.”

“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength: the freedom of the inner life is the one freedom that no one can take.”

“The present is the gift: the air you breathe, the food you eat, the people you love — all are given, and the person who has learned the gratitude for the given has learned the beginning of the wisdom.”

“The wrong that others do harms the doer, not the soul of the wronged: no one can harm your character but yourself, and the injury that reaches the body ends at the body.”

“Remember how long you have been putting off these things, and how often you have received an opportunity from the gods and not used it. Now it is time to realize that you are a part of the universe, that you exist for a short time, and that all things pass away quickly.”

“Be kind, but not weak: the gentleness of the strong is the highest strength, and the person who can be gentle without bending has mastered both the art of love and the art of firmness.”

“The life needs few things: the simple meal, the honest work, the love of the few — and the person who has understood the few has found the freedom that the many could not give.”

“The mind is undisturbed by the impressions unless it assents to them: wipe out the impression, stop the pulling of the strings, and the mind is its own master.”

“You can retreat into yourself at any moment: the mind is the citadel that no one can storm, and the person who has fortified the inner life has found the refuge that no enemy, no fortune, and no calamity can take.”

“When you arise in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they cannot tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and I know that this wrongdoer before me is my kin — not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and a portion of the same divine reason. Therefore none of them can hurt me.”

“Confine yourself to the present: for the past is gone and the future is not yours, and the person who lives in the present lives the whole of life, because life is nothing but the present, lived well.”

“The sun shines on all without distinction, giving light to the world without asking what it illumines: be like the sun — the reason within you is the light that illumines the life, without distinction and without reserve.”

“Act always for the common good: what benefits the hive benefits the bee, and the person who serves the whole is served by the whole.”

“The things you are pursuing are nothing but smoke: the fame that you crave will be forgotten in a generation, and the opinions of posterity are no more than the opinions of the present — nothing to you.”

“The wise person cannot be conquered: the soul that has found its ground is not moved by the assaults of fortune, and the constancy of the inner life is the victory that no enemy can take.”

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficient measure to allow the accomplishment of the greatest things, if it were well invested. The final hour is not the only hour; each day is a life in miniature, and the person who has lived each day as a complete life has already died well.”

“Expectation is the thief of the present: the person who lives in the future never lives at all, and the person who has released the expectation has recovered the life.”

“Dry your tears, but do not harden your heart: the grief of the wise is felt without being mastered — the tears are human, and the despair is the judgment that can be corrected.”

“The joy of the wise is the constant delight in the good: it does not come and go with fortune, but abides in the soul that has found the one good that cannot be lost.”

“Reason is the distinctive gift of the human being: the life lived by reason is the life in agreement with nature, and the person who has perfected the reason has perfected the nature.”

“The hardship is the training of the wise: the suffering that is endured builds the strength that the ease cannot give, and the person who has been tested by fortune is the person who can face anything.”

“Look within: the goods of the soul are within you, and they are the only goods that fortune cannot touch. The person who has found them has found the one wealth that cannot be taken away.”

“The present is the only time that is truly ours: the past is gone, the future is uncertain, and the person who possesses the present possesses their life. Seize the day, and hold it as your own.”

“The soul should be always at rest and settled, serene and unruffled, holding itself in its own possession: this is what it is to be tranquil, and this is the reward of the well-governed life.”

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”