The constant recollection of death is the test of human conduct.
This is the chief thing: be not perturbed, for all things are according to the nature of the universal.
No form of nature is inferior to art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms. – Variant: There is no nature which is inferior to art, the arts imitate the nature of things.
Life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after fame is oblivion.
As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion.
Were you to live three thousand years, or even thirty thousand, remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment; and furthermore, that he can have no other life except the one he loses...
Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and ay, ‘Why were things of this sort ever brought into the world?’
You have to assemble your life yourself – action by action.
How easy it is to repel and release every impression which is troublesome and immediately to be tranquil.
There is change in all things. You yourself are subject to continual change and some decay, and this is common to the entire universe.
Stick to what’s in front of you – idea, action, utterance.
Nothing proceeds from nothingness, as also nothing passes away into non-existence.
Snow endures but for a season, and joy comes with the morning.
Don’t let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole.
In man’s 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.
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.
The man who has a house everywhere has a home nowhere.
What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.
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.
Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.