Quote collection
777 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"To them that ask: Where hast thou seen the Gods, or how knowest thou certainly that there be Gods, that thou art so devout in their worship? I answer: Neither have I seen my own soul, and yet I respect and honor it."
"When men hate or blame you, or say hurtful things about you, look deeply into their hearts and see what kind of men they are. You'll see how unnecessary it is to strain after their good opinion. Yet you must still think kindly of them. they are your neighbors. The gods help them as they do you, by dreams and oracles, to win their hearts' desires."
"I can at once become happy anywhere, for he is happy who has found himself a happy lot. In a word, happiness lies all in the functions of reason, in warrantable desires and virtuous practice."
"No form of nature is inferior to art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms."
"Today I escaped all circumstance, or rather I cast out all circumstance, for it was not outside me, but within my judgements."
"The mind which is free from passions is a citadel, for man has nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be inexpugnable . He then who has not seen this is an ignorant man: but he who has seen it and does not fly to this refuge is unhappy."
"Anything that is beautiful is beautiful just as it is. Praise forms no part of its beauty, since praise makes things neither better nor worse. This applies even more to what it commonly called beautiful: natural objects, for example, or works of art. True beauty has no need of anything beyond itself."
"All things are changing; and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to."
"Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is allowed thee."
"It is a shame for the soul to be first to give way in this life, when thy body does not give way."
"Everything is interwoven, and the web is holy; none of its parts are unconnected. They are composed harmoniously, and together - they compose the world."
"Thou mayest foresee... the things which will be. For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the order of things now: accordingly to have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years."
"Have I done something for the general interest? Well then I have had my reward. Let this always be present to thy mind, and never stop doing such good."
"...in the ways of Nature there is no evil to be found."
"Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions."
"The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it."
"The intelligence of the universe is social."
"Bear in mind that the measure of a man is the worth of the things he cares about. If it is good to say or do something, then it is even better to be criticized for having said or done it."
"Let no act be done without purpose."
"I am an old man and have had many worries, but most have never come to pass."