It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it.

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

He who is brave is free.

All cruelty springs from weakness.

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

Associate with people who are likely to improve you.

No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don't have.

Time discovers truth.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are.

He suffers more than is necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.

Life is long if you know how to use it.

No man was ever wise by chance.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire.

Fire tests gold, suffering tests brave men.

To be everywhere is to be nowhere.

They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.

Regard a friend as loyal, and you will make him loyal.

Cease to hope, and you will cease to fear.

There is no genius without a touch of madness.

A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.

Nothing is burdensome if taken lightly, and nothing need arouse your irritation so long as you don't make it irritate you.

He who spares the wicked injures the good.

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

If you wish to be loved, love.

How does it help to make troubles heavier by weeping over them?

It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.

Ignorance is a sudden and terrible enemy.

Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.

A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent.

The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.

Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.

Leisure without study is death—a tomb for the living man.

We learn not in the school, but in life.

Silence is a lesson learned from the many sorrows of life.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

To wish to be well is a part of becoming well.

Hold your fortune in an open palm; cling to nothing, and nothing can be wrenched from you.

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

No tree becomes deep-rooted and sturdy unless frequent gales buffet it.

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

He who has begun his task has accomplished half. Dare to be wise and carry through.

To lose a friend is the greatest of all losses.

Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant.

The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

Often a very old man has no other proof of his long life than his age.

Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.

We must indulge the mind and from time to time allow it the leisure which is its food and strength.

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it.

Do not ask for a lighter burden; seek shoulders broad enough to carry it.

It is quality rather than quantity that matters.

A good conscience welcomes the crowd, but a bad conscience is troubled and agitated even in solitude.

The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

He who has courage has everything.

Every guilty person is his own executioner.

Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your superiors.

To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.

A voyage through rough waters only proves the skill of the steersman.

Nothing is our own, except time.

We should every night call ourselves to an account: What infirmity have I mastered today? What passion opposed? What virtue acquired?

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

He who seeks wisdom is already on the road to possessing it.

It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it.

You will cease to fear when you cease to hope for what is outside your control.

No wind is favorable for the sailor who does not know to which port he is heading.

Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day.

The mind is its own kingdom, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.

He who has much desire has much need.

The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

A life spent in learning how to live is a life well spent.

I am not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land.

If you want to escape things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.

True joy is a serene and serious matter.

A person’s greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness.

Life without a design is erratic.

There is nothing more disgraceful than an old man who has no evidence of his life except his age.

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.

Regard every day as a separate life.

To lose a parent is to lose your past; to lose a friend is to lose your present.

All things are changing; you yourself are in continuous mutation and in a manner dying every day.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

He who fears death will never do anything worthy of a man who is alive.

The greatest cure for sorrow is work and purposeful engagement.

We should live as if we were in public view, and think as if our thoughts were open to the world.

A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.

Throw off anxiety and enter the haven of your own mind.

Let us enjoy life before it slips through our fingers like dry sand.

A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.

The heart that is broken by sorrow will find in philosophy its sweetest balm.

Death is the release from all pain and the boundary beyond which our troubles cannot pass.

He that does good to another does good also to himself.

No man is crushed by misfortune unless he has first been deceived by prosperity.

Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself.

A wise man is contented with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.

Gold is tested by fire, brave men by misfortune.

The final hour of our life does not bring death, but only finishes it.

Freedom is won by casting off greed, fear, and subservience to outside opinions.

Stand firm, for the tempest will not last forever, but the dignity of your soul will endure.

The wound is the place where the light enters you.

What you seek is seeking you.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

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

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.