Why is it strange if god puts noble spirits through hard tests? A lesson in virtue is never soft. Fortune flogs us and lacerates us: let us suffer. It is not cruelty but a trial, and the more often we come to it the more courageous we will be. The most robust part of the body is that which constant use has put into action. We ought to offer ourselves up to fortune so that by it we can be hardened against it. It will gradually make us equal to it: the frequency of our endangerment will give us scorn for dangers.
Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right?
The highest good is a mind that scorns the happenings of chance, and rejoices only in virtue.
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
No man’s good by accident. Virtue has to be learnt.
Virtue is according to nature; vice is opposed to it and hostile.
Virtue is not vouchsafed to a soul unless that soul has been trained and taught, and by unremitting practice brought to perfection.
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.