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
If you do the task before you always adhering to strict reason with zeal and energy and yet with humanity, disregarding all lesser ends and keeping the divinity within you pure and upright, as though you were even now faced with its recall – if you hold steadily to this, staying for nothing and shrinking from nothing, only seeking in each passing action a conformity with nature and in each word and utterance a fearless truthfulness, then the good life shall be yours. And from this course no man has the power to hold you back. -Marcus Aurelius
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. -Seneca the Younger
It is not the man who has little, but he who desires more, that is poor. -Seneca the Younger
All my life I have been seeking to climb out of the pit of my besetting sins and I cannot do it and I never will unless a hand is let down to draw me up. -Seneca the Younger
Let him who has granted a favour speak not of it; let him who has received one, proclaim it. -Seneca the Younger
Think on this doctrine, – that reasoning beings were created for one another’s sake; that to be patient is a branch of justice, and that men sin without intending it. -Marcus Aurelius
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. -Marcus Aurelius
The chief bond of the soldier is his oath of allegiance and love for the flag. -Seneca the Younger
Practice really hearing what people say. Do your best to get inside their mind. -Marcus Aurelius
The universe is in change, life is an opinion. -Marcus Aurelius
When you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, remember that your defining characteristic-what defines a human being-is to work with others. -Marcus Aurelius
Find a path or make one. -Seneca the Younger
The one thing worth living for is to keep one’s soul pure. -Marcus Aurelius
The gods sustain and guide all their works. -Marcus Aurelius
Difficulty shows what men are. -Epictetus
He who has great power should use it lightly. -Seneca the Younger
Everything is here for a purpose, from horses to vine shoots. What’s surprising about that? Even the sun will tell you, “I have a purpose,” and the other goods as well. -Marcus Aurelius
Are you distracted by outward cares? Then allow yourself a space of quiet wherein you can add to your knowledge of the Good and learn to curb your restlessness. Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself. -Marcus Aurelius
Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths. -Epictetus
A great step toward independence is a good-humoured stomach. -Seneca the Younger
Trifling trouble find utterance; deeply felt pangs are silent. -Seneca the Younger
Crime oft recoils upon the author’s head. -Seneca the Younger
Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness it is to be expecting evil before it comes. -Seneca the Younger
Poverty needs much, avarice everything. -Seneca the Younger
Who has more leisure than a worm? -Seneca the Younger
The mind that is much elevated and insolent with prosperity, and cast down with adversity, is generally abject and base. -Epicurus
It is possible to depart from life at this moment. Have this thought in mind whenever you act, speak, or think. -Marcus Aurelius
I am always content with what happens; for I know that what God chooses is better than what I choose. -Epictetus
Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect. -Marcus Aurelius
When you find an unwillingness to rise early in the morning, endeavor to rouse your faculties, and act up to your kind, and consider that you have to do the business of a man; and that action is both beneficial and the end of your being. -Marcus Aurelius
He who boasts of his descent, praises the deed of another. -Seneca the Younger
People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them. -Epictetus
If a man is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault, for God made all men to be happy. -Epictetus
There is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers. -Seneca the Younger
Corporeal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty. -Seneca the Younger
The offender needs pity, not wrath; those who must needs be corrected, should be treated with tact and gentleness; and one must be always ready to learn better. ‘The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.’ -Marcus Aurelius
God has entrusted me with myself. -Epictetus
If you wish to live a life free from sorrow, think of what is going to happen as if it had already happened. -Epictetus
If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another. -Epicurus
It is right that man should love those who have offended him. He will do so when he remembers that all men are his relations, and that it is through ignorance and involuntarily that they sin,–and then we all die so soon. -Marcus Aurelius
It is easier to exclude harmful passions than to rule them, and to deny them admittance than to control them after they have been admitted. -Seneca the Younger
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult -Seneca the Younger
Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest. -Epicurus
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