“If a person gave your body to a passer-by, you would be angry; yet you entrust your mind to any who happens to praise or blame you.”
“Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet.”
“Some things are in our control and others not.”
“For freedom is not acquired by satisfying yourself with what you desire, but by destroying your desire.”
“In each separate thing that you do, consider the matters which come first and those which follow after.”
“Two principles we should always have ready: that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.”
“Know first who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
“Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression; but say, “Impression, wait for me a little—let me see what you are.””
“It is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.”
“Appearances to the mind are of four kinds: things either are as they appear; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be.”
“When you close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone; for you are not alone; God is within, and your Genius is within.”
“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”
“Practice yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.”
“It is difficulties that show what men are.”
“The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.”
“At the still point of the turning world... there is only the dance.”
“In my end is my beginning.”
“Old men ought to be explorers.”
“You are the music while the music lasts.”
“Home is where one starts from.”