The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.
Let thine occupations be few, saith the sage, if thou wouldst lead a tranquil life.
Light may earth’s crumbling sand be laid on thee, that dogs may dig thy bones up easily.
Leave other people’s mistakes where they lie.
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.
To live each day as though one’s last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing – here is the perfection of character.
This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to one’s fate.
Everything is ephemeral, both that which remembers and that which is remembered.
Both happiness and unhappiness depend on perception.
Hast thou reason? I have. Why then dost not thou use it? For if this does its own work, what else dost thou wish?
Why do we shrink from change? What can come into being save by change?
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.
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.”
The intelligence of the universe is social.
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.
Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, and unassuming; the friend of justice and godliness; kindly, affectionate, and resolute in your devotion to duty.
If the gods care not for me and for my children, There is a reason for it.
Your task is to stand straight; not to be held straight.
It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.
The ruling power within, when it is in its natural state, is so related to outer circumstances that it easily changes to accord with what can be done and what is given it to do.