Meditations

"Everything is flowing and changing continually. Nothing is permanent, everything is connected."

"If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures."

"Things could not be better, even if they suited me perfectly."

"Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I will encounter busybodies, ingrates, and cranks."

"How small a part of the boundless and unfathomable time is assigned to every man."

"Take a sick man with you everywhere, and you will see the value of health."

"The man who lives wisely is content with what falls to his lot."

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."

"A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it."

"You have within you right now everything you need to respond to whatever the world throws at you."

"Time is a river of passing events."

"The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates; but the happiness of the wise stands on a firm foundation."

"You are not harmed by being unjustly treated; you are harmed only by treating others unjustly."

"Our life is what our thoughts make it."

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive."

"Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small."

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

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

"Very little is needed to turn a life around. It requires only a change of perspective."

"Confine yourself to the present."

"Stop whatever you're doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death, or of not living at all?"

"Choose not to be harmed — and you won't be harmed. Really. Nothing external can harm you."

"The universe is transformation; life is opinion."

"Forget everything. Start fresh. Return to the fundamentals of your principles."

"How much trouble he avoids who does not look to what his neighbor says or does or thinks."

"You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think."

"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."

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

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