You may fetter my leg, but Zeus himself cannot get the better of my free will.
Lampis the ship owner, on being asked how he acquired his great wealth, replied, My great wealth was acquired with no difficulty, but my small wealth, my first gains, with much labor.
We all dread a bodily paralysis, and would make use of every contrivance to avoid it; but none of us is troubled about a paralysis of the soul.
Bid a singer in a chorus, Know Thyself; and will he not turn for the knowledge to the others, his fellows in the chorus, and to his harmony with them?
Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief.
We must be afraid of neither poverty nor exile nor imprisonment; of fear itself only should we be afraid.
Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right?
It is wicked to withdraw from being useful to the needy, and cowardly to give way to the worthless.
Contentment, as it is a short road and pleasant, has great delight and little trouble.
Dare to look up to God and say, Deal with me in the future as Thou wilt; I am of the same mind as Thou art; I am Thine; I refuse nothing that pleases Thee; lead me where Thou wilt; clothe me in any dress Thou choosest.
Act well your given part; the choice rests not with you.
We are not to lead events, but to follow them.
Every place is safe to him who lives with justice.
Happiness is an equivalent for all troublesome things.
In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; but in adversity it is the most difficult of all things.
Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening.
No living being is held by anything so strongly as its own needs.
Events do not just happen, but arrive by appointment.
Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.
Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!