“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; and if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.”

“Be your own master, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal creature.”

“If you do the task before you always adhering to strict reason with zeal and energy and yet with humanity, disregarding all lesser ends and keeping the divinity within you pure and upright, as though you were even now faced with its recall - if you hold steadily to this, staying for nothing and shrinking from nothing, only seeking in each passing action a conformity with nature and in each word and utterance a fearless truthfulness, then the good life shall be yours. And from this course no man has the power to hold you back.”

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.”

“Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also. Marcus Aurelius”

“When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans.”

“It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men's badness, which is impossible.”