Great Throughts Treasury

"Men exist for the sake of one another."

"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."

"No man is happy who does not think himself so."

"Nothing is evil according to nature."

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

"Of pain. When unbearable it destroys us; when lasting, it is bearable."

"One universe made up of all that is; and one God in it all, and one principle of being, and one law, the reason shared by all thinking creatures, and one truth."

"Philosophy... consists in keeping the demon within a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose, nor feeling the need of another man’s doing or not doing anything; and besides, accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming from thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally, waiting for death with a cheerful mind."

"Remember that the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment."

"Remember this, that very little is needed to make a happy life."

"Some things are hurrying into existence, and others are hurrying out of it; and of that which is coming into existence part is already extinguished. Motions and changes are continually renewing the world, just as the uninterrupted course of time is always renewing the infinite duration of ages. In this flowing stream, then on which there is no abiding, what is there of the things which hurry by on which a man would set a high price? It would be just as if a man should fall in love with one of the sparrows, which fly by, but it has already passed out of sight."

"The act of dying is also one of the acts of life."

"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."

"The happiness of a man is to do the true work of a man."

"The passing minute is every man's equal possession, but what has once gone by is not ours."

"This is a property of the rational soul, love of one’s neighbor, and truth and modesty, and to value nothing more than itself, which is also the property of Law. Thus then right reason differs not at all from the reason of justice."

"Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too."

"All things are implicated with one another, and the bond is holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other things. For things have been coordinated, and they combine to make up the same universe. "

"A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season. "

"If you work at that which is before you, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly without allowing anything else to distract you, but keeping your divine part pure, as if you might be bound to give it back immediately; if you hold to this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied with your present activity according to nature . . . you will be happy. And there is no man who is able to prevent this. "

"Let every action aim solely at the common good. "

"Poverty is the mother of crime. "

"The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject. "

"The time of human life is but a point, and the substance is a flux, and its perceptions dull, and the composition of the body corruptible, and the soul a whirl, and fortune inscrutable, and fame a senseless thing…. What then is there which can guide a man? One thing and only one, philosophy. "

"Every part of me will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another part of the universe, and so on, forever. And by consequence of such a change, I too exist, and those who begot me, and so on forever in the other direction."

"We are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature."

"Cease not to think of the Universe as one living Being, possessed of a single Substance and a single soul. "

"For nowhere can a mind find a retreat more full of peace or more free from care than his own soul. "

"Here is a rule to remember in the future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not, “This is a misfortune,” but “To bear this worthily is good fortune.” "

"How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. "

"It is a shameful thing for the soul to faint while the body still perseveres. "

"Man is born for deeds of kindness. "

"Nature is the nature of all things that are; things that are have a union with all things from the beginning. "

"No longer talk about the kind of man a good man ought to be, but be such. "

"Pain is either an evil for the body - and if so, let the body state its case - or for the soul; but the soul can maintain its own unclouded calm, and refuse to view it as an evil. "

"Spend your brief moment according to nature’s law, and serenely greet the journey’s end as an olive falls when it is ripe, blessing the branch that bare it, and giving thanks to the tree that gave it life."

"Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not."

"The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. "

"Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou dost every act in life as though it were thy last. "

"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one."

"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."

"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together,but do so with all your heart."

"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

"Our life is what our thoughts make it."

"If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it."

"If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed."

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

"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury."

"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."