“It is quality rather than quantity that matters.”

“Night brings our troubles to the light rather than banishes them.”

“It is the quality of a great soul to scorn great things and to prefer that which is ordinary rather than that which is too great.”

“Life is like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.”

“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”

“Are you surprised, as if it were a novelty, that after such long travel and so many changes of scene you have not been able to shake off the gloom and heaviness of your mind? You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate. [...] Do you ask why such flight does not help you? It is because you flee along with yourself. You must lay aside the burdens of the mind; until you do this, no place will satisfy you.”

“There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.”