Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ‘This is a misfortune’ but ‘To bear this worthily is good fortune.’ -Marcus Aurelius
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices me wherever I am or whatever I do. -Epictetus
No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it. -Seneca the Younger
Who is not attracted by bright and pleasant children, to prattle, to creep, and to play with them? -Epictetus
The friends of the unfortunate live a long way off. -Seneca the Younger
Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now. -Epictetus
Zeno, Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. These philosophers were especially known for teaching that virtue is the only good for human beings, and those external things—such as health, wealth, and pleasure are not good nor bad in themselves but have value as material for virtue to act upon.
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Some quotes inside this book:
The man who doesn’t know what the universe is doesn’t know where he lives. -Marcus Aurelius
Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. -Marcus Aurelius
It is the mind that makes us rich and happy, in what condition soever we are, and money signifies no more to it than it does to the gods. -Seneca the Younger
Cinna wishes to seem poor, and is poor -Marcus Aurelius
Let not the enjoyment of pleasures now within your grasp, be carried to such excess as to incapacitate you from future repetition. -Seneca the Younger
Such as the chain of causes we call Fate, such is the chain of wishes: one links on to another; the whole man is bound in the chain of wishing for ever. -Seneca the Younger
A person’s fears are lighter when the danger is at hand. -Seneca the Younger
It is medicine, not scenery, for which a sick man must go searching. -Seneca the Younger
Leisure without literature is death and burial alive. -Seneca the Younger
The worst evil of all is to leave the ranks of the living before one dies. -Seneca the Younger
Tranquility is a certain quality of mind, which no condition or fortune can either exalt or depress. -Seneca the Younger
