Echoes

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.

The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Do not let anyone else run your business.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.

The world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law of all nature, and you know not yet how a globule of sap ascends; in yourself slumbers the whole of Reason; it is for you to know all, it is for you to dare all.

You shall have joy, or you shall have power, said God; you shall not have both.

I found that a strict and regular life is the true way to conquer nature, and that the proverb which says that nature is so powerful is in part false.

The best fighter is never angry.

The destiny of man is in his own soul.

All authority is in the throne; and what is the throne? This wooden frame covered with velvet? No, I am the throne.

The sublime is excited in me by the great stoical doctrine, Obey thyself.

Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.

Abstinence is the nurse of the soul.

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Though the whole world should praise him, he would not be stimulated to greater endeavour, and though the whole world should condemn him, he would not be depressed. So fixed was he in the difference between the internal judgement of himself and the external judgement of others.

Henceforth I ask not good fortune — I myself am good fortune.