Sublime

Whenever any disturbing news is brought to you, you should have this thought ready at hand: that news never relates to anything that lies within the sphere of choice.

“For there are two rules to keep at the ready—that there is nothing good or bad outside my own reasoned choice, and that we shouldn’t try to lead events but to follow them.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES

You have been given such a body, such parents, such brothers, such a country, and such a post within it, and then you come to me and say, ‘Change my task.’ What, don’t you have the resources to able to deal with that which has been given to you?

“Don’t trust in your reputation, money, or position, but in the strength that is yours—namely, your judgments about the things that you control and don’t control. For this alone is what makes us free and unfettered, that picks us up by the neck from the depths and lifts us eye to eye with the rich and powerful.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES

are: he blames none, praises none, complains of none, accuses none, never speaks of himself as if he were somebody,

Remove your aversion, then, from everything that is not within our power, and transfer it to what is contrary to nature among those things that are within our power. For the present, however, suppress your desires entirely; for if you desire any of the things that are not within our power, you’re bound to be unfortunate, while those that are within

don’t do anything with a heavy heart or sense of affliction, thinking that you’re in a bad situation; for no one is forcing you to do that.

With regard to everything that happens to you, remember to look inside yourself and see what capacity you have to enable you to deal with it. If