"As fire tests gold, so misfortunate tests brave men." —Seneca

"Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war." —Seneca

"Courage is knowing what not to fear." —Plato

"Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly." —Marcus Aurelius

"Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do. Hold to your true aspirations no matter what is going on around you." —Epictetus

"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor." —Seneca

"Nothing exists except atoms and free space, everything else is opinion." —Democritus

"The best livelihood (particularly for the strong) is earning a living from the soil, whether you own your land or not. Many can support their families by farming land owned by the state or private landowners. Some even get rich through hard work with their own hands. The earth repays those who cultivate her, both justly and well, multiplying what she received—endowing in abundance all the necessities of life to anyone willing to work— and all this without violating your dignity or self-respect!" —Musonius Rufus, Musonius Rufus On How To Live

"Kindness is unconquerable, so long as it is without flattery or hypocrisy. For what can the most insolent man do to you, if you contrive to be kind to him, and if you have the chance gently advise and calmly show him what is right…and point this out tactfully and from a universal perspective." —Marcus Aurelius

"People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy." —Seneca

"I do not know whether I shall make progress; but I should prefer to lack success rather than to lack faith." —Seneca

"The foundation of every state is the education of its youth." —Diogenes

"If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it." —Marcus Aurelius

"If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures." —Musonius Rufus

"People often say what is right and do what is wrong; but nobody can be in the wrong if he is doing what is right." —Xenophon, Conversations Of Socrates