Echoes

There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man's life: "Know thyself," and "Nothing too much;" and upon these all other precepts depend.

The food which a temperate man leaves upon his plate is more beneficial than that which a glutton eats.

One should not eat unless one is hungry, nor drink unless one is thirsty.

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

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

Everything in excess is opposed to nature.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.

Those who are slaves to their appetites cannot preserve their reason, their memory, or their senses in their full vigour; for a full belly does not produce a fine mind.

Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. That is, be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test. So with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and when his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

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

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.

As long as a person exercises, exerts himself greatly, does not eat to the point of being overly full, and keeps his bowels soft, illness will not come upon him and his strength will increase.

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

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

The unexamined life is not worth living.

A person should not eat until his stomach is full. Rather, he should eat until he has consumed approximately three quarters of his fill.

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

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons. It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.

He whose intellect overcomes his desire is higher than the angels; he whose desire overcomes his intellect is less than an animal.

First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.

An immoderate diet is unhealthy, but a temperate one preserves strength.

It would be better for me that the whole world should disagree with me than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.