Table of Contents
Your first task is to distinguish between what is within your control—your own judgments and choices—and what is not, such as external events and other people's actions. Focus on mastering your internal responses rather than trying to control externals.
Epictetus — Discourses 2.5.4
Through disciplined judgment and training, education yields the ultimate freedom in tranquility, fearlessness, and autonomy from external circumstances.
Epictetus — Discourses 2.1.21
Most people waste their lives in pointless grief, foolish joy, greedy desire, and social amusements, leaving little of their own time to themselves. Guard your hours carefully to avoid dying before your time.
Seneca — On the Brevity of Life 3.3b
Achieve a well-flowing life by aligning your judgments and actions with reality and virtue. Accept what happens and act justly, cultivating inner harmony.
Chrysippus — Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 7.1.88
External circumstances are fleeting; true strength comes from steady character. Prosperity and adversity both test and reveal our virtue.
Seneca — Thyestes 613
True freedom arises from correct judgments about what is within your control versus what is not. Rely on your own reasoned choices rather than external validations like reputation, money, or status.
Epictetus — Discourses 3.26
Distinguish between what life assigns you and how you perform your duties. Embrace your roles with virtue, regardless of their nature or duration.
Epictetus — Enchiridion 17
Embrace change as natural and focus on your judgments and actions. Separate impressions from assent, and live by virtue rather than external outcomes.
Marcus Aurelius — Meditations 4.3
Adopt a broader perspective by historicizing and universalizing events, then prioritize virtue above all.
Marcus Aurelius — Meditations 4.32
External events don't cause distress; your judgment of them does, and you can change that judgment immediately.
Marcus Aurelius — Meditations 8.47
Good and evil reside solely in our own choices and judgments. By confining our definitions of good and evil to what we can control, we eliminate blame toward others and external circumstances, fostering inner peace and responsibility.
Marcus Aurelius — Meditations 6.41
Stop complaining about public life; either act constructively or keep silent, but don't poison yourself or others with grievances.
Marcus Aurelius — Meditations 8.9
Give honors publicly to inspire virtue, but give aid privately to preserve dignity; true generosity frees people rather than binding them to you.
Seneca — On Benefits II.9-10
Serve the common good by helping others improve or patiently enduring their faults.
Marcus Aurelius — Meditations 8.59
Humans are social beings who thrive through shared work; practice brotherly virtue by contributing to the common good and making your household a place of support.
Musonius Rufus — Lectures 14.9
Give without talk or tally; reminders turn gifts into debts and poison both giver and receiver.
Seneca — On Benefits II.11
When wronged, refuse to mirror vice; the highest answer to injury is to act justly and stay clean in character.
Marcus Aurelius — Meditations 6.6
Mercy, rightly used, preserves your character, strengthens authority, and prevents cycles of harm. You spare another, and you spare yourself.
Seneca — On Clemency I (general)
Love as a practiced disposition toward others; to be truly loved, become the kind of person who actively loves through just and generous conduct.
Hecato via Seneca — Moral Letters 9.6
Give in a way that fits the person, time, and place; a well-chosen humble gift is better than an expensive but thoughtless one.
Seneca — On Benefits II