Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen.
It is not events that disturb the minds of men, but the view they take of them.
Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets.
Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.
Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.
Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.
Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.
Always treat people as ends in themselves, never as means to an end.
He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.
If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance.
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’
When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.
To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.
Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?
Never value anything as profitable to thyself which shall compel thee to break thy promise, to lose thy self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything which needs walls and curtains.
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.