The Consolation of Philosophy

"'Who,' said she, 'has allowed yon play-acting wantons to approach this sick man--these who, so far from giving medicine to heal his malady, even feed it with sweet poison?"

"'Art thou that man,' she cries, 'who, erstwhile fed with the milk and reared upon the nourishment which is mine to give, had grown up to the full vigour of a manly spirit?"

"nothing is wretched, but thinking makes it so, and conversely every lot is happy if borne with equanimity."

"Cease, then, to seek the wealth thou hast lost, since in true friends thou hast found the most precious of all riches."

"'Whither?' said I. 'To true felicity,' said she, 'which even now thy spirit sees in dreams, but cannot behold in very truth, while thine eyes are engrossed with semblances.'"

"wealth, rank, power, glory, pleasure. Now Epicurus"

"But, lo! herein is the very chiefest cause of my grief--that, while there exists a good ruler of the universe, it is possible that evil should be at all, still more that it should go unpunished. Surely thou must see how deservedly this of itself provokes astonishment. But a yet greater marvel follows: While wickedness reigns and flourishes, virtue not only lacks its reward, but is even thrust down and trampled under the feet of the wicked, and suffers punishment in the place of crime. That this should happen under the rule of a God who knows all things and can do all things, but wills only the good, cannot be sufficiently wondered at nor sufficiently lamented.'"

"the good are always strong, the bad always weak and impotent"

"I roundly affirm that there is no such thing as chance at all, and consider the word to be altogether without meaning, except as a symbol of the thing designated."

"rewards and punishments proposed for the good and bad, since no free and voluntary motion of the will has deserved either one or the other"