Everything we know is limited, and what we don't know is unlimited.
Bravery is somewhere between confident boldness and timidity.
Beauty has so many qualities that even those who will follow us will find something to say about her glory.
Many a bond of friendship is broken, many a home is destroyed by trust in rumours.
You must use not the beautiful appearance of the book, but what is written in it.
To us it seems insufficient to leave the body and soul of children in that state in which they are given by nature, and we take care of their education and training, so that what is good becomes even better, and what is bad becomes good .
As long as you are happy, you have friends among men and among gods; the latter listen to your requests with pleasure. But when misfortune happens, no one befriends you; once fate changes, everything becomes unfriendly towards you.
You must put a seal on your tongue, so that your words do not echo, guard your words more fiercely than your wealth.
Everything you do and everything you say and think must be done as if every moment were the last. The longest life is no different from the shortest. For the present is the same for all, and therefore the losses are the same, and all are reduced, one after the other, to the moment. No one can lose either the past or the future. Because who can take from me what I don't have?
Everything is based on conviction; and the conviction is up to you. Therefore, when you wish, remove the conviction, and like a sailor who has passed the rocks, you will reach the stillness, the peace and the calm harbor.
Do whatever nature tells you in the moment. Do not hope to establish Plato's republic, be satisfied if you move forward at least one step, and do not consider it an insignificant success. For who can change the way people think? And what can there be without such a change but slavery, wailing, and feigned submission?
Man's duty is to love those who offend him.
If something bothers you, it's not the thing that's to blame, it's what you think about it. And it is in your power to change what you think
And so, spend this moment, namely your life, in harmony with nature, and then part with life as easily as a ripe plum from the branch: praising nature and expressing your gratitude to the tree that gave you - gave life.
People live for each other, to learn each other or reconcile with each other.
Don't settle for a cursory examination.
Don't rush to agree with the talkative one.
Do not be attracted by sophisticated sophistication, do not write sophisticated works.
It is not easy to point to someone who has become unhappy because he was inattentive to what is happening in a foreign soul. But he will certainly be unhappy who does not watch what is happening to his own soul.
Constantly keep in mind all that exists now as it once existed; and keep in mind that all these will be in the future, and imagine the same dramas and sights that you have learned from your own experience or from the stories of past times, as for example: the whole court of Adrian, the whole court of Antony, the whole court of Philip, of Alexander, of Cressus. As they were one and the same, only the persons in the scene were different.
The spider that has caught a fly is already proud of it; and another rejoices that he has caught a rabbit or a fish with a net, or a boar, or a bear, or the Sarmatians. Aren't these all robbers if we are to be clear about their starts?
Imagine that you have already died, that you have lived only until the present moment, and the time that is left of your life, live it according to nature. Look at the past: how many changes the states have undergone! You can also predict the future. Because he is the same and does not go out of the rhythm of what is happening in the present moment. Therefore, it does not matter whether you observe human life for forty years or for ten thousand years. What's new for you to see?
Let neither the despair of another, nor the triumph of another, divert you.
The most important thing is that man docilely waits for death as a natural decay of those elements from which he is conceived. Because this behavior is in accordance with nature, and what is in accordance with nature cannot be bad.
The most persuasive arguments that we must always bear in mind are these two: the first consists in the fact that things themselves do not attract the soul, they are found outside of it, and our inclinations are solely due to our inner imagination. And the second is that everything you see changes so quickly that it ceases to exist. How many changes you yourself do not witness - constantly think about it. The world is change, life is sensation.
You must once and for all put an end to the discussion of what a good man should be and simply...become one.
Look deep, and let neither the quality of anything escape your sight, nor its price.
Meditate more often on the connections between all things and the mutual relations between them. Because they are all closely related to each other and therefore collaborate with each other, following each other in a certain order. This is explained by the permanence of movement, by the common harmony and unity of what is.
Whatever happens to you, it is predestined for you. And the combination of causes is from the very beginning related to your existence in the given circumstances.
God is closer and more comprehensible to us than sensible, material things, and that is why we know him more easily.