A growing collection of quotes from ancient stoics that I enjoy using for reflection when contemplating how to live well in tumultuous times.
Marcus Aurelius on dealing with challenging people:
Humans are here for the sake of each other. So either teach them, or learn to bear them.
And also …
Whenever you have trouble getting up in the morning, remind yourself that you’ve been made by nature for the purpose of working with others.
Seneca on misfortune:
To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.
Seneca on fear and anxiety:
There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
Epictetus on pursuing wealth over happiness:
Examine yourself whether you wish to be rich or to be happy. If you wish to be rich, you should know that it is neither a good thing nor at all in your power: but if you wish to be happy, you should know that it is both a good thing and in your power, for the one is a temporary loan of fortune, and happiness comes from the will.
Epictetus on equanimity:
Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen to be as they are, and you’ll do fine.
Marcus Aurelius on focus and mindfulness:
Every hour focus your mind attentively…on the performance of the task in hand, with dignity, human sympathy, benevolence and freedom, and leave aside all other thoughts. You will achieve this, if you perform each action as if it were your last…
Marcus Aurelius on anxiety:
Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions—not outside.
Marcus Aurelius on starting the day:
At dawn when you have trouble getting out of bed tell yourself: “I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”