Although," said he [Cato], "all the world has fallen under one man's sway, although Caesar's legions guard the land, his fleets the sea, and Caesar's troops beset the city gates, yet Cato has a way of escape; with one single hand he will open a wide path to freedom. This sword, unstained and blameless even in civil war, shall at last do good and noble service: the freedom which it could not give to his country it shall give to Cato! |
And yet life, Lucilius, is really a battle. |
Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly. |
But how much more highly do I think of these men! They can do these things, but decline to do them. To whom that ever tried have these tasks proved false? To what man did they not seem easier in the doing? Our lack of confidence is not the result of difficulty. The difficulty comes from our lack of confidence. |
Death is a release from and an end of all pains: beyond it our sufferings cannot extend: it restores us to the peaceful rest in which we lay before we were born. If anyone pities the dead, he ought also to pity those who have not been born. Death is neither a good nor a bad thing, for that alone which is something can be a good or a bad thing: but that which is nothing, and reduces all things to nothing, does not hand us over to either fortune, because good and bad require some material to work upon. Fortune cannot take ahold of that which Nature has let go, nor can a man be unhappy if he is nothing. |
Don't ask for what you'll wish you hadn't got. |
Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness. |
Fire tries gold, misfortune tries brave men. |
For love of bustle is not industry – it is only the restlessness of a hunted mind. |
For no man is free who is a slave to his body. |
For sometimes it is an act of bravery even to live. |
For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years be behind us are in death's hands. |
Friendship is always helpful, but love sometimes even does harm |
He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself. |
He who receives a benefit with gratitude, repays the first installment of it. |
He who, when he may, forbids not sin, commands it. |
I do not trust my eyes to tell me what a man is: I have a better and more trustworthy light by which I can distinguish what is true from what is false: let the mind find out what is good for the mind. |
If any one is angry with you, meet his anger by returning benefits for it: a quarrel which is only taken up on one side falls to the ground: it takes two men to fight. |
If you are wise, mingle these two elements: do not hope without despair, or despair without hope. |
Impurity is caused by attitude, not events. |
