“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
“This is your business—to act well the given part, but to choose it belongs to another.”
“Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right?”
“Whatever moral rules you have deliberately proposed to yourself. abide by them as they were laws, and as if you would be guilty of impiety by violating any of them. Don’t regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours.”
“You will do the greatest services to the state, if you shall raise not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses.”
“Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent.”
“For your part, do not desire to be a general, or a senator, or a consul, but to be free; and the only way to this is a disregard of things which lie not within our own power.”
“Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don’t talk how persons ought to eat, but eat as you ought.”
“Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a kind as the author pleases to make it. If short, of a short one; if long, of a long one.”
“Everything - a horse, a vine - is created for some duty... For what task, then, were you yourself created?”