“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”

“A man should always have these two rules in readiness. First, to do only what the reason of your ruling and legislating faculties suggest for the service of man. Second, to change your opinion whenever anyone at hand sets you right and unsettles you in an opinion, but this change of opinion should come only because you are persuaded that something is just or to the public advantage, not because it appears pleasant or increases your reputation.”

“Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”

“We must make haste then, not only because we are daily nearer to death, but also because the conception of things and the understanding of them cease first.”

“Retire into thyself. The rational principle which rules has this nature,that it is content with itself when it does what is just, and so securestranquility.”

“Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn't matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. Dying...or busy with other assignments. Because dying, too, is one of our assignments in life. There as well: "To do what needs doing." Look inward. Don't let the true nature of anything elude you. Before long, all existing things will be transformed, to rise like smoke (assuming all things become one), or be dispersed in fragments...to move from one unselfish act to another with God in mind. Only there, delight and stillness...when jarred, unavoidably, by circumstances, revert at once to yourself, and don't lose the rhythm more than you can help. You'll have a better grasp of the harmony if you keep going back to it.”

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