"Nothing can satisfy greed, but even a small measure satisfies nature. So it is that the poverty of an exile brings no misfortune, for no place of exile is so barren as not to produce ample support for a person."
~ Seneca, On Consolation to Helvia, 10.11b
"How appropriate that the gods put under our control only the most powerful ability that governs all the rest - the ability to make the right use of external appearances - and that they didn't put anything else under our control. Was this simply because they weren't willing to give us more? I think if it had been possible they would have given us more, but it was impossible."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.1.7-8
"For even peace itself will supply more reason for worry. Not even safe circumstances will bring you confidence once your mind has been shocked - once it gets in the habit of blind panic, it can't provide for its own safety. For it doesn't really avoid danger, it just runs away. Yet we are exposed to greater danger with our backs turned."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 104.10b
"Leisure without study is death - a tomb for the living person."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 82.4
"Show me someone who isn't a slave! One is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to power, and all are slaves to fear. I could name a former Consul who is a slave to a little old woman, a millionaire who is the slave of the cleaning woman . . . No servitude is more abject than the self-imposed."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 47.17
"Being unexpected adds to the weight of a disaster, and being a surprise has never failed to increase a person's pain. For that reason, nothing should ever be unexpected by us. Our minds should be sent out in advance to all things and we shouldn't just consider the normal course of things, but what could actually happen. For is there anything in life that Fortune won't knock off its high horse if it pleases her?"
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 91.3a-4
"Remember that your ruling reason becomes unconquerable when it rallies and relies on itself, so that it won't do anything contrary to its own will, even if its position is irrational. How much more unconquerable if its judgments are careful and made rationally? Therefore, the mind freed from its passions is an impenetrable fortress - a person has no more secure place of refuge for all time."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.48
"Difficulties show a person's character. So when a challenge confronts you, remember that God is matching you with a younger sparring partner, as would a physical trainer. Why? Becoming an Olympian takes sweat! I think no one has a better challenge than yours, if only you would use it like an athlete would that younger sparring partner."
~ Epictetus, Meditations, 1.24.1-2
"When forced, as it seems, by circumstances into utter confusion, get a hold of yourself quickly. Don't be locked out of the rhythm any longer than necessary. You'll be able to keep the beat if you are constantly returning to it."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.11
"The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, because an artful life requires being prepared to meet and withstand sudden and unexpected attacks."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.61
"Remember that to change your mind and to follow someone's correction are consistent with a free will. For the action is yours alone - to fulfill its purpose in keeping with your impulse and judgment, and yes, with your intelligence."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.16
"Whenever you suffer pain, keep in mind that it's nothing to be ashamed of and that it can't degrade your guiding intelligence, nor keep it from acting rationally and for the common good. And in most cases you should be helped by the saying of Epicurus, that pain is never unbearable or unending, so you can remember these limits and not add to them in your imagination. Remember too that many common annoyances are pain in disguise, fever and loss of appetite. When they start to get you down, tell yourself you are giving in to pain."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.64
"What if someone despises me? Let them see to it. But I will see to it that I won't be found doing or saying anything contemptible. What if someone hates me? Let them see to that. But I will see to it that I'm kind and good-natured to all, and prepared to show even the hater where they went wrong. Not in a critical way, or to show off my patience, but genuinely and usefully."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.13
"Success comes to the lowly, and to the poorly talented, but the special characteristic of a great person is to triumph over the disasters and panics of human life."
~ Seneca, On Providence, 4.1
"Try praying differently, and see what happens: Instead of asking for 'a way to sleep with her,' try asking for 'a way to stop desiring to sleep with her.' Instead of 'a way to get rid of him,' try asking for 'a way to not crave his demise.' Instead of 'a way to not lose my child,' try asking for 'a way to lose my fear of it.'"
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.40.(6)
"No, it is events that give rise to fear - when another has power over them or can prevent them, that person becomes able to inspire fear. How is the fortress destroyed? Not by iron or fire, but by judgments . . . here is where we must begin, and it is from this front that we must seize the fortress and throw out the tyrants."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 4.1.85-86; 87a
"Zeno always said that nothing was more unbecoming than putting on airs, especially with the young."
~ Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophy, 7.1.22
"Let us get used to dining out without the crowds, to being a slave to fewer slaves, to getting clothes only for their real purpose, and to living in more modest quarters."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 9.3b
"But there is no reason to live and no limit to our miseries if we let our fears predominate."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 13.12b
"No one is crushed by Fortune, unless they are first deceived by her . . . those who aren't pompous in good times, don't have their bubbles burst with change. Against either circumstance, the stable person keeps their rational soul invincible, for it's precisely in the good times they prove their strength against adversity."
~ Seneca, On Consolation To Helvia, 5.4b, 5b-6
"Consider who you are. Above all, a human being, carrying no greater power than your own reasoned choice, which oversees all other things, and is free from any other master."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 2.10.1
"You can bind up my leg, but not even Zeus has the power to break my freedom of choice."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.1.23
"I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent - no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you."
~ Seneca, On Providence, 4.3
"We must undergo a hard winter training and not rush into things for which we haven't prepared."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.2.32
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.23.30
"The rational soul is stronger than any kind of fortune - from its own share it guides its affairs here or there, and is itself the cause of a happy or miserable life."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 98.2b
