Every man must be content with that glory which he may have at home.
—Boethius
Topics: Realization, Acceptance, Awareness
So nothing is ever good or bad unless you think it so, and vice versa. All luck is good luck to the man who bears it with equanimity.
—Boethius
Topics: Luck
He who is virtuous is wise; and he who is wise is good; and he who is good is happy.
—Boethius
Topics: Wisdom
He who has calmly reconciled his life to fate… can look fortune in the face.
—Boethius
Topics: Acceptance
Who can give law to lovers? Love is a greater law to itself.
—Boethius
Topics: Love
It’s my belief that history is a wheel. ‘Inconstancy is my very essence,’ says the wheel. Rise up on my spokes if you like but don’t complain when you’re cast back down into the depths. Good time pass away, but then so do the bad. Mutability is our tragedy, but it’s also our hope. The worst of time, like the best, are always passing away.
—Boethius
Topics: History
If there is anything good about nobility it is that it enforces the necessity of avoiding degeneracy.
—Boethius
Nothing is miserable unless you think it so.
—Boethius
In other living creatures the ignorance of themselves is nature, but in men it is a vice.
—Boethius
Topics: Awareness, Self-Knowledge
Music is part of us, and either ennobles or degrades our behavior
—Boethius
Topics: Music
In every kind of adversity, the bitterest part of a man’s affliction is to remember that he once was happy.
—Boethius
Topics: Adversity
Another cause of your sickness, and the most important: you have forgotten what you are.
—Boethius
Topics: Identity
Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.
—Boethius
Topics: Love
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Marcus Aurelius Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Cicero Roman Philosopher
Pliny the Elder Roman Scholar
Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) Roman Stoic Philosopher
Ausonius Latin Poet, Rhetorician
Quintilian Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic
Seneca the Elder (Marcus Annaeus Seneca) Roman Rhetorician
Tacitus Roman Orator, Historian
Thomas Aquinas Italian Catholic Priest
William of Ockham English Philosopher, Polemicist