Life is a gift of the immortal Gods, but living well is the gift of philosophy.
Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art.
Everything may happen.
Philosophy alone makes the mind invincible, and places us out of the reach of fortune, so that all her arrows fall short of us.
Remove severe restraint and what will become of virtue?
Philosophy is the health of the mind.
Philosophy is the art and law of life, and it teaches us what to do in all cases, and, like good marksmen, to hit the white at any distance.
The philosopher: he alone knows how to live for himself. He is the one, in fact, who knows the fundamental thing: how to live.
Philosophy's power to blunt all the blows of circumstance is beyond belief.
In my own time there have been inventions of this sort, transparent windows tubes for diffusing warmth equally through all parts of a building short-hand, which has been carried to such a perfection that a writer can keep pace with the most rapid speaker. But the inventing of such things is drudgery for the lowest slaves; philosophy lies deeper. It is not her office to teach men how to use their hands. The object of her lessons is to form the soul.
The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave.
Misfortunes, in fine, cannot be avoided; but they may be sweetened, if not overcome, and our lives made happy by philosophy.
Philosophy is good advice, and no one gives good advice at the top of his lungs.
Shall I tell you what philosophy holds out to humanity? Counsel...You are called in to help the unhappy.
Philosophy does not regard pedigree, she received Plato not as a noble, but she made him one.
People do not die - they kill themselves.
When some state or other offered Alexander a part of its territory and half of all its property he told them that 'he hadn't come to Asia with the intention of accepting whatever they cared to give him, but of letting them keep whatever he chose to leave them.' Philosophy, likewise, tells all other occupations: 'It's not my intention to accept whatever time is leftover from you; you shall have, instead, what I reject.' Give your whole mind to her.
Philosophy takes as her aim the state of happiness...she shows us what are real and what are only apparent evils. She strips men's minds of empty thinking, bestows a greatness that is solid and administers a check to greatness where it is puffed up and all an empty show; she sees that we are left no doubt about the difference between what is great and what is bloated.
Man is a social animal.
