"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
"Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public."
"No careless actions, no confused words, no wandering thoughts; briefly, neither contract into yourself nor boil over in spirit; nor in your life be so busy as to leave no room for leisure."
"If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write."
"Adopt new habits yourself: consolidate your principles by putting them into practice."
"We should every night call ourselves to an account; What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abort of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift."
"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."
"If it´s a habit that´s troubling us, we must try to find the appropriate remedy to use against that. So what´s the remedy for a habit? The opposite habit."
"As long as you live, keep learning how to live."
"If you wish to make Pythocles an old man, filling his life to the full, do not add to his years, but subtract from his desires."
"I never spend a day in idleness; I appropriate even a part of the night for study. I do not allow time for sleep but yield to it when I must, and when my eyes are wearied with waking and ready to fall shut, I keep them at their task."