1. Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
2. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
3. All cruelty springs from weakness.
4. Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
5. Non est ad astra mollis e terris via” – “There is no easy way from the earth to the stars
6. Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
7. We suffer more often in imagination than in reality
8. As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
9. You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire
10. Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms — you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.
11. If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.
12. It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.
13. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
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14. Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.
15. What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.
16. He who is brave is free
17. No man was ever wise by chance
18. If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.
19. They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.
20. Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We’ve been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.
21. Associate with people who are likely to improve you.
22. I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.
23. He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.
24. Only time can heal what reason cannot.
25. Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
26. Timendi causa est nescire –
Ignorance is the cause of fear.
27. Life is like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.
28. Wealth is the slave of a wise man. The master of a fool
29. Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.
30. If you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor; if you live according what others think, you will never be rich.
31. As long as you live, keep learning how to live.
32. The sun also shines on the wicked.
33. People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.
34. Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant.
35. A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer’s hand.
36. Leisure without books is death, and burial of a man alive.”
37. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
38. We learn not in the school, but in life.
39. Often a very old man has no other proof of his long life than his age.
40. A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.
41. Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.
42. We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality
43. Life is long, if you know how to use it.
44. There is no genius without a touch of madness.
45. Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.
46. To wish to be well is a part of becoming well.
47. It is not the man who has too little that is poor, but the one who hankers after more.
48. I am not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land.
49. While we wait for life, life passes
50. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.
51. It does not matter how many books you have, but how good the books are which you have.
52. He who spares the wicked injures the good.
53. It is difficult to bring people to goodness with lessons, but it is easy to do so by example.
54. But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.
55. You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.
56. It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
57. Regard [a friend] as loyal, and you will make him loyal.
58. Fire tests gold, suffering tests brave men.
59. Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach.
60. What really ruins our character is the fact that none of us looks back over his life.
