“All that goes to make you a good man lies within yourself. And what do you need in order to become good? To wish it.”

— Seneca, Epistle LXXX

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

“And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

— Luke 2:10-14

“The first step to living wisely is to relinquish self-conceit. See the delusional folly in being a nervous know-it-all whose giddy mind is always prattling on about its knee-jerk impressions of events and other people, forcing current experiences into previously formed categories: ‘Oh yes, this thing here is just like such-and-such.’ Behold the world fresh—as it is, on its own terms—through the eyes of a beginner. To know that you do not know without sheepishly apologizing is real strength and sets the stage for learning and progress in any endeavor.”

— Epictetus, The Enchiridion

“A good man will do what he thinks it will be honorable for him to do, even if it involves toil; he will do it even if it involves harm to him; he will do it even if it involves peril; again, he will not do that which will be base, even if it brings him money, or pleasure or power. Nothing will deter him from that which is honorable, and nothing will tempt him into baseness.”

— Seneca, Epistle LXXVI: On Learning Wisdom in Old Age

“Life is absolutely about the choice; we either define our realities by the choices we make, or our realities become defined by the choices that we don’t make — choices that others make for us.

That’s fundamentally what freedom is all about. Being free is a choice … one that’s backed up by small actions.”

— Simon Black, Sovereign Man

“Not every person you meet in life will become a close friend or lover. Some you will find hard to get along with or impossible to like. But these people, too, teach you the precious lesson of who you do like, so that you will appreciate those special people even more.”

— Marie Kondo, The life-changing magic of tidying up, p. 60