Apply yourself to thinking through difficulties -- hard times can be softened, tight squeezes widened, and heavy loads made lighter for those who can apply the right pressure.
-- Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 10.4b
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
You must stop blaming God, and not blame any person. You must completely control your desire and shift your avoidance to what lies within your reasoned choice. You must no longer feel anger, resentment, envy or regret.
-- Epictetus, Discourses, 3.22.13
At this moment you aren't on a journey, but wandering about, being driven from place to place, even though what you seek -- to live well -- is found in all places. Is there any place more full of confusion than the Forum? Yet even there you can live at peace, if needed.
-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 28.5b-6a
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
That cucumber is bitter, so toss it out! There are thorns on the path, then keep away! Enough said. Why ponder the existence of nuisance? Such thinking would make you a laughing-stock to the true student of Nature, just as a carpenter or cobbler would laugh if you pointed out the sawdust and chips on the floors of their shops. Yet while those shopkeepers have dustbins for disposal, Nature has no need of them.
-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.50
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
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
