“If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires.”

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

“All friendship is desirable in itself, though it starts from the need of help”

“I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know they do not approve, and what they approve I do not know.”

“[A] right understanding that death is nothingto us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not because it adds to itan infinite span of time, but because it takes away the craving forimmortality. For there is nothing terrible in life for the man who hastruly comprehended that there is nothing terrible in not living.”

“It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.”

“I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.”