Joy, according to Stoics

Trust me, real joy is a serious thing. Do you think someone can, in the charming expression, blithely dismiss death with an easy disposition? Or swing open the door to poverty, keep pleasures in check, or meditate on the endurance of suffering? The one who is comfortable with thurning these thoughts over is truly full of joy, but hardly cheerful. It's exactly such a joy that I would wish for you to possess, for it will never run dry once you've laid claim to its source.

-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 23.4 

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Check your privelege, for each has their own past

Some people are sharp and others are dull; some are raised in a better environment, others in worse, the latter, having inferior habits and nurture, will require more by way of proof and careful instruction to master these teachings and to be formed by them -- in the same way that bodies in a bad state must be given a great deal of care when perfect health is sought.

-- Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 1.1.33-1.3.1-3 

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Where is anything better?

Indeed, if you find anything in human life better than justice, truth, self-control, courage -- in short, anything better than the sufficiency of your own mind, which keeps you acting according to the demands of true reason and accepting what fate gives you outside of your own power of choice -- I tell you, if you can see anything better than this, turn to it heart and soul and take full advantage of this great good you've found.

-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.6.1 

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Learn, Practice, Train, Apply, Teach

That's why the philosophers warn us not to be satisfied with mere learning, but to add practice and then training. For as time passes we forget what we learned and end up doing the opposite, and hold opinions the opposite of what we should.

-- Epictetus, Discourses, 2.9.13-14 

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Seven functions of the mind

The proper work of the mind is the exercise of choice, refusal, yearning, replusion, preparation, purpose, and assent. What then can pollute and clog the mind's proper functioning? Nothing but its own corrupt decisions.

-- Epictetus, Discourses, 4.11.6-7 

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman