"People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die." —Plato

"Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power." —Descartes

"The highest good is not to seek to do good but to allow yourself to become it." —Hierocles

"No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself." —Seneca

"Imagine that the keeper of a huge, strong beast notices what makes it angry, what it desires, how it has to be approached and handled, the circumstances and the conditions under which it becomes particularly fierce or calm, what provokes its typical cries, and what tones of voice make it gentle or wild. Once he’s spent enough time in the creature’s company to acquire all this information, he calls it knowledge, forms it into a systematic branch of expertise, and starts to teach it, despite total ignorance, in fact, about which of the creature’s attitudes and desires is commendable or deplorable, good, or bad, moral or immoral. His usage of all these terms simply conforms to the great beast’s attitudes, and he describes things as good or bad according to its likes and dislikes, and can’t justify his usage of the terms any further, but describes as right and good the things which are merely indispensable, since he hasn’t realized and can’t explain to anyone else how vast a gulf there is between necessity and goodness." —Plato, The Republic

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not." —Epicurus

"I will reveal to you a love potion, without medicine, without herbs, without any witch’s magic; if you want to be loved, then love." —Hecato Of Rhodes

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." —Cicero

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not." —Epicurus

"What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself." —Hecato Of Rhodes

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." —Plato

"You will earn the respect of all if you begin by earning the respect of yourself. Don’t expect to encourage good deeds in people conscious of your own misdeeds." —Musonius Rufus

"In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business." —Marcus Aurelius

"Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards." —Diogenes

"Recognize that if something is humanly possible, you can do it too." —Marcus Aurelius

"Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow." —Cicero

"Ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary?" —Marcus Aurelius

"Rule your mind or it will rule you." —Horace

"No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it." —Seneca

"Most people, when they are set upon looking into other people’s affairs, never turn to examine themselves." —Xenophon, Conversations Of Socrates