No great thing is created suddenly.

Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig. I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.