On Life:
A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.
Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light. Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky. Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and what beyond is in Eternity.
Life is warfare.
Life is a gift of the immortal Gods, but living well is the gift of philosophy.
Life is neither a good nor an evil it is simply the place where good and evil exist.
Mere life is not a blessing, but to live well.
The true felicity of life is to be free from anxieties and perturbations to understand and do our duties to God and man, and to enjoy the present without any serious dependence on the future.
This life is only a prelude to eternity.
On Death:
Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.
Death is sometimes a punishment, sometimes a gift to many it has come as a favor.
It is uncertain in what place death may await thee therefore expect it in any place.
On Happiness:
True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.
Where fear is, happiness is not.
True happiness is to understand our duties toward God and man to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is abundantly sufficient for he that is so wants nothing. The great blessings of mankind are within us, and within our reach but we shut our eyes and, like people in the dark, fall foul of the very thing we search for without finding it. Tranquility is a certain quality of mind which no condition of fortune can either exalt or depress.
On Success:
Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.
On Fear:
Where fear is, happiness is not.
On God:
God is the universal substance in existing things. He comprises all things. He is the fountain of all being. In Him exists everything that is.
The first petition that we are to make to Almighty God is for a good conscience, the next for health of mind, and then of body.
Whatever is to make us better and happy, God has placed either openly before us or close to us.
On Religion:
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.