Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.

If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.

A person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values.

Bear in mind that the measure of a man is the worth of the things he cares about.

As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home and abroad, and of the sort of society they frequent; and the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, has no value for him.

Your task is to stand straight; not to be held straight.

The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite.