Waste No More Time Doing This

Don’t waste the rest of your time here worrying about other people—unless it affects the common good. It will keep you from doing anything useful. You’ll be too preoccupied with what so-and-so is doing, and why, and what they’re saying, and what they’re thinking, and what they’re up to, and all the other things that throw you off and keep you from

I would like to suggest, though, that Cato and the other Stoics found a way to retain their tranquility despite their involvement with the world around them: They internalized their goals. Their goal was not to change the world, but to do their best to bring about certain changes. Even if

“There is only one way to happiness,” Epictetus taught the Romans, “and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”

Quoi qu'il en soit, Marc Aurèle répète souvent dans les Pensées que l'on gagne beaucoup de temps à retrancher des occupations futiles comme de chercher à savoir ce que les autres ont dit ou fait ou pensé (IV,18) et qu' « il ne faut pas passer à des riens plus de temps qu'il faut » (IV,32,5).