Those desires that do not bring pain if they are not satisfied are not necessary; and they are easily thrust aside whenever to satisfy them appears difficult or likely to cause injury.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?

Happiness is man's greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.

The things you really need are few and easy to come by; but the things you can imagine you need are infinite, and you will never be satisfied.

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.

We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.

Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.

Being happy is knowing how to be content with little

Live your life without attracting attention.

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.

Words are just farts from a lot of fools who have swallowed too many books.

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence every one must take an equal portion most people would be content to take their own and depart.

At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he's seventy he still wants to reform the world but he knows he can't.

You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't.

I've always seen it as the role of an artist to drag his inside out, give the audience all you've got. Writers, actors, singers, all good artists do the same. It isn't supposed to be easy.

I don't watch myself on TV, I don't read the news clippings about me, so when people come up and say, 'What about that story last week?' I go, 'I didn't even know there was.'

I am a very committed European.

The public service needs lots of people, South Africa generally, needs lots of people.

I acknowledge the Furies. I believe in them. I have heard the disastrous beating of their wings.