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For truth should be told only to those who will listen. p. 99

There is no one you can name who knows how he began to want what he now wants. People are not led by their intentions but jerked about by whims. Sometimes we make the best of fortune, but just as often fortune gets the better of us. It is shameful to drift rather than to go forward; shameful to find oneself in the midst of a whirlwind of events and ask, astonished, "How did I get here?" p. 117

What am I up to? Death is after me; life is on the retreat. Teach me something I can use against that! Don't let me run from death any longer; don't let life run away from me! Encourage me to face what is difficult; give me the serenity to accept what I cannot avoid. Expand the narrow confines of my remaining time. Teach me that the goodness of a life depends not on how long it is but on how it is used; and that it is possible—in fact quite common—for a person to have a long life that is scarcely a life at all. Say to me before I sleep, "It's possible you will not wake up," and when I rise, "It's possible you will never sleep again." Say to me when I go out, "It's possible you will not return," and when I return, "It's possible you will never leave." p. 143

No one acquires an excellent mind without first having a bad one. All of us have been taken over already, and to learn virtue is to unlearn one's faults. Yet we may be of good cheer as we tackle the job of self-correction; for once we do come into possession of the good, it is ours forever. One does not unlearn virtue. p. 146

This is the one reason why we cannot complain about life: life does not hold anyone by force. The human condition is well situated in that no one is miserable except by his own fault. If it suits you, live; if not, you are allowed to return to where you came from. p. 211

For virtue is made up of consistency: all its actions harmonize and agree with one another. This harmony is lost if the mind, which by rights should be elevated, is brought down by desire or grief. All anxiety and worry is dishonorable, all reluctance to act; for honorable conduct is sure and unhampered, undismayed, ever standing at the ready. p. 234

...look within yourself. Until you do that, you know what you are like only from what other people tell you. p. 263