Epictetus — "If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad."

"The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests."

"First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak."

"Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself."

"If you are going to write, be content to be unlearned. If you are going to wrestle, be content to be beaten. For if you are not content with these things, you will not write, nor will you wrestle."

"It is better to starve to death in freedom from grief and fear, than to live in plenty with perturbation."