If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.
It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.
Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.
The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.
Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.
It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.
We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.
We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.
The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.
If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.
A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.
It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.
Justice... is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.
The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.
Both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom: the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come.
Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.