1 - It is not as though if you go astray, someone else will pay the penalty. If you keep this in mind, you will not be angry or upset with anyone, won’t insult, criticize, hate, or be offended by anyone. [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

2 - You are rejecting what nature has given you today if you are concerned about what people say about you tomorrow. [Marcus Aurelius, M4.19.] 

3  - Lengthy dealings with evil (like lengthy dealing with good) can cause us to love them. [Seneca, T 1] 

4  - Whenever truth makes a difference to us on anything, we would not go for random judgements. Yet when it comes to the first and foremost cause of good or bad conduct, happiness or adversity, and success or failure, we act impulsively and at random. [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

5  - Anything that is beautiful in any way derives its beauty from itself and is complete in itself. Praise is not a part of it. Nothing is made better or worse by praise. [Marcus Aurelius, M4.20.] 

We take a kindly view of our private concerns. This biased view clouds our judgment. [Seneca, T 1] 

6  - If our judgement about externals is correct, our choice is good; if our judgement is distorted or crooked, then our choice is bad. [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

7  - Can any of these things be made better by praise? Or made worse by criticism? Does the emerald lose its beauty if nobody admires it? Does gold, ivory, or purple? Does a lyre, a knife, a rosebud, or a bush? [Marcus Aurelius, M4.20] 

8  - I believe that many people would have attained wisdom, if they had not believed that they had already attained it. [Seneca, T 1] 

9  - This is a God-given law: If you want something good, get it for yourself. But you say that you’d get it from someone else. I repeat, get it from yourself. [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

10  - Don’t be swept off your feet. When you have an impulse, see if it is just. See things as they are. [Marcus Aurelius, M4.22.] 

11  - What is left there for me to fear? What does he have control over? Over things in my power? No one has control over those except me. Over things not in my power? I don’t care about those. [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

12  - We have no reason to believe that other people’s flattery is more destructive to us than our own. [Seneca, T 1] 

13  - I am in tune with every note of your harmony. Nothing is late for me, nothing is early for me. [Marcus Aurelius, M4.23.] 

14 - If the king says he will win through the use of fear, then I would say he doesn’t seem to understand that mind can only be conquered by itself, not by another. [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

15 - Do the essential, as demanded by reason in social being. Doing a few essential things and doing them well brings contentment. [Marcus Aurelius, M4.24.] 

16 - Who dares to tell the truth to oneself? Who—even when surrounded by a group of flattering sycophants—is not their own greatest flatterer? [Seneca T 1] 

17 - Challenging times are opportunities to practice what you have learned. [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

18 - Most of what we say and do is not essential. You will save time and trouble by eliminating it. [Marcus Aurelius, M4.24.] 

Even a quiet sea will show a ripple or two, when calming down after a storm. [Seneca, T 2] 

19  - It is important to remember this so, when you face difficult situations, you will know it’s time to show what you have learned. [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

21  - At every step, ask yourself “Is this really necessary?” We need to eliminate not only idle actions but idle impressions as well. Then you won’t act unnecessarily. [Marcus Aurelius, M4.24.] 

22  - If you cannot demonstrate in practice what you learned, why learn it in the first place? [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

23  - What you desire is to be unshaken. It is a great thing. No, it is the greatest thing of all. It raises a human being almost to the level of god… I call this tranquility. [Seneca, T 2] 

24  - Test yourself. Are you capable of being a good person, a person who is content with your part in the universe, who wants to be just in what you do, and charitable in your ways? [Marcus Aurelius, M4.25.] 

25  - How can a truly educated person pay any attention to an uneducated person with regard to what is holy or unholy, just or unjust? [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

26  - What we are seeking, then, is how the mind may always follow a steady, unobstructed course, may be happy with itself, and may look with pleasure upon its surroundings. [Seneca, T 2] 

27  - Your part is to be serene, to be simple. Anyone who does wrong does wrong to himself. [Marcus Aurelius, M4.26.] 

28  - No one is a master of another but death and life, pleasure and pain. [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

29  - People with worse nature find greater delight in wearing themselves out with busy activity [Seneca, T 2] 

30 - Has something happened to you? Good. It was supposed to happen. It was so decided when time began. It was woven into the pattern that is special to you, like everything else that happens. [Marcus Aurelius, M4.26.] 

31 - We need people who apply what they have learned and bear witness to it in their actions. [Epictetus, D 1.28.] 

People wander aimlessly, travel to distant places, sometimes by sea, sometimes by land. They try to reduce pain of aimlessness that is always dissatisfied with the present. [Seneca, T 2] 

 

D = Discourses; 

M = Meditations 

T = On Tranquility 

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