“By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.”

“If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.”

“Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.”

“Men achieve cheerfulness by moderation in pleasure and by proportion in their life excess and deficiency are apt to fluctuate and cause great changes in the soul. And souls which change over great intervals are neither stable nor cheerful. So one should set one's mind on what is possible and be content with what one has taking little account of those who are admired and envied and not dwelling on them in thought but one should consider the lives of those who are in distress thinking of their grievous sufferings so that what one has and possesses will seem great and enviable and one will cease to suffer in one's soul through the desire for more.”

“To a wise and good man the whole earth is his fatherland.”

“Everywhere man blames nature and fate yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character and passion, his mistakes and his weaknesses.”

“Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.”