“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself with are externals, not under my control, and which have to do with the choice I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own.”
– Epictetus
“True happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied, for he that is wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not”
– Seneca
« When I see an anxious person, I ask myself, what do they want? For if a person wasn’t wanting something outside of their own control, why would they be stricken by anxiety ? »
– Epictetus
« Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. »
– Epictetus
« What upsets people is not things themselves, but their judgements about these things. »
– Epictetus
« We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. »
– Seneca
« But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future. »
– Seneca
« Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions—not outside. »
– Marcus Aurelius
« You have power over your mind not outside events, realise this and you will find strength. »
– Seneca
“Frame your thoughts like this— you are an old person, you won’t let yourself be enslaved by this any longer, no longer pulled like a puppet by every impulse, and you’ll stop complaining about your present fortune or dreading the future.”
– Marcus Aurelius
