"You are well aware that it is not numbers or strength that bring the victories in war. No, it is when one side goes against the enemy with the gods’ gift of a stronger morale that their adversaries, as a rule, cannot withstand them. I have noticed this point too, my friends, that in soldiering the people whose one aim is to keep alive usually find a wretched and dishonorable death, while the people who, realizing that death is the common lot of all men, make it their endeavour to die with honour, somehow seem more often to reach old age and to have a happier life when they are alive. These are facts which you too should realize (our situation demands it) and should show that you yourselves are brave men and should call on the rest to do likewise." —Xenophon, The Persian Expedition

"Devote the rest of your life to making progress." —Epictetus

"A room without books is like a body without a soul." —Cicero

"At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?" —Marcus Aurelius

"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it." —Marcus Aurelius

"There could be no justice, unless there were also injustice; no courage, unless there were cowardice; no truth, unless there were falsehood." —Chrysippus

"Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty." —Socrates

"As a matter of self-perseveration, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task." —Diogenes

"When a dog is tied to a cart, if it wants to follow, it is pulled and follows, making its spontaneous act coincide with necessity. But if the dog does not follow, it will be compelled in any case. So it is with men, too: even if they don’t want to, they will be compelled to follow what is destined." —Zeno

"Well-being is attained little by little, and nevertheless is no little thing itself." —Zeno Of Citium

"Be indifferent to what makes no difference." —Marcus Aurelius

"You become what you give your attention to." —Epictetus