The self and self-knowledge
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
— Plato, Apology
“Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.”
— Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine
“Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.”
— Epictetus, A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
“I think, therefore I am.”
Text from the included edition · French
“Je pense, donc je suis.”
— Descartes, Discours de la méthode
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.”
— Dhammapada, The Dhammapada
“The best revenge is not to copy him that wronged you.”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever.”
— Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavad Gita (The Song Celestial)
“Let him look upon reason as a monarch sitting on the throne of his heart.”
— Al-Ghazali, Some religious and moral teachings of Al-Ghazzali Being brief extracts from his
“The greatest thing in the world is for a man to know that he is his own.”
— Michel de Montaigne, Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete
“The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.”
— Pascal, Pascal's Pensées
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius (Epistulae Morales)
“Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.”
— Machiavelli, The Prince
“Not to know what happened before one was born, is to be a boy all one's life.”
— Cicero, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4
“Life is a business, the proceeds of which are very far from covering the cost of it.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 3 of 3)
“There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power.”
— Epictetus, The Enchiridion
“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it... this is knowledge.”
— Confucius, The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics)
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays — First Series
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods
“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
— John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism
“No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.”
— Plato, Apology
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius (Epistulae Morales)
“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”
— Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius (Epistulae Morales)
“The universe is transformation: life is opinion.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
— Plato, Phaedo
“Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer, The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Religion, a Dialogue, Etc.
“He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation.”
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
“Who can (make) the muddy water (clear)? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear.”
— Laozi, The Tao Teh King, or the Tao and its Characteristics
“Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.”
— Pascal, Pascal's Pensées
“The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.”
— Pascal, Pascal's Pensées
“Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.”
— Epictetus, A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
“He who does wrong does wrong against himself. He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“Adapt yourself to the things which your destiny has given you: love those with whom it is your lot to live, and love them with sincere affection.”
— Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral courage which it contained.”
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods
“He who fears death will never act as becomes a living man.”
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Of Peace of Mind
“A great step towards independence is a good-humoured stomach, one that is willing to endure rough treatment.”
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius (Epistulae Morales)
“Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman-a rope over an abyss.”
— Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None
“What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal”
— Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None
“Thou shalt become what thou art.”
— Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom (La Gaya Scienza)
“A man's character is his daemon.”
— Heraclitus, The fragments of the work of Heraclitus of Ephesus on nature; translated from th