1 - Why do you seek further rewards for being a good person than doing what is wise and right? … Does it look too small and worthless to you to be good, noble, and happy? [Epictetus D3.24]

2 - Eudemonia (happiness) means a ‘good god within’ or ‘reason within’. So, Imagination, what are you doing here? Get back to where you came from. [Marcus Aurelius M7.17]

3 - What I have, I will not hoard greedily. Neither will I squander it. [Seneca H20]

4 - Since you have been introduced to this great world by the gods, it is your duty to do the work of a human being? [Epictetus D3.24]

5 - Afraid of change? What can exist without change? … Could you take a hot bath unless the firewood has undergone a change? Could you be nourished if food hasn’t undergone a change? Could you achieve anything useful without change? [Marcus Aurelius M7.18]

6 - I will think the only possessions that are real are those I have given away to people who needed them. [Seneca H20]

7 - You will not find this result by just going or standing at the door, but being right in your judgment – in thinking, in choosing, in desiring, and in avoiding. [Epictetus D3.24]

8 - All bodies are carried through life as though through a rushing stream… How many a Socrates, a Chrysippus, an Epictetus has time already swallowed up? Remember this when you deal with any person or thing. [Marcus Aurelius M7.19]

9 - No gift is too large if the one who receives it is worthy of it. [Seneca H20]

10 - Where is the need for flattery or gloom? Why long for the quiet you enjoyed somewhere else, places that are familiar to you? Stay a little longer and these places will become familiar to you as well. [Epictetus D3.24]

11 - Only one thing troubles me: The fear that I may do the wrong thing against nature, in the wrong way, or at the wrong time. [Marcus Aurelius M7.20]

12 - I will do nothing because of what others might say, but I’ll do everything according to my conscience. [Seneca H20]

13 - Reason will never ask you to humiliate yourself or be brokenhearted, depend on others, or blame God or fellow human beings. [Epictetus D3.24]

14 - Soon, you will have forgotten the world. Soon, the world will have forgotten you. [Marcus Aurelius M7.21]

15 - When I do anything in private, I will imagine everyone in the country is looking at me. [Seneca H20]

16 - What stops you from loving someone who is bound to die, as one may have to leave you? [Epictetus D3.24]

17 - It is uniquely human to love even those who make mistakes and go wrong. [Marcus Aurelius M7.22]

18 - I will be pleasant to my friends, gentle with my enemies. I will pardon before I am asked. I will meet the wishes of good people halfway. [Seneca H20]

19 - We use every excuse to be mean-spirited – some saying that it is because of a child, others because of their mother and yet others because of their brothers. [Epictetus D3.24]

20 - Nature takes the universal substance (as if it were wax) and moulds it into a horse. Then it melts the horse and makes it into a tree, then a human being, and then some other thing. Each exists for only a short time. It does the container no harm to be put together or broken apart. [Marcus Aurelius M7.23]

21 - Where can fortune invest its riches more safely than with a trustee who would gladly give it back when asked? [Seneca H21]

22 - We should not be unhappy because of someone else, but we should be happy for all. [Epictetus D3.24]

23 - An angry look is unnatural. It is completely against nature. If you are angry often, your beauty is destroyed. After a while, it is completely gone, and you cannot regain it. [Marcus Aurelius M7.24]

24 - Wise people do not consider that they are unworthy of any gifts from Fortune. They don’t love money, but they would rather have it. They do not admit to their hearts – only to their homes. [Seneca H21]

25 - If you don’t allow yourself to be overpowered by pleasure, or by suffering, or by fame or by wealth; if, at the time of your choice, you are prepared to let go of your body if someone threatens it, how can you ever be a slave? To whom are you subordinate? [Epictetus D3.24]

26 - Being angry is contrary to reason. If we lose the ability to see our mistakes, what’s the point in living? [Marcus Aurelius M7.24]

27 - When you are poor, only one kind of virtue exists: refusal to bow down and be crushed. But wealth allows you much greater scope to be moderate, generous, diligent, organized, and altruistic. [Seneca H22]

28 - I am born for what is good and what belongs to me, not for what is evil. [Epictetus D3.24]

29 - Nature, which controls everything, will soon change all that you see and use it as material for something else. It will do so over and over again, so the world is always new. [Marcus Aurelius M7.25]

30 - Wise people do not despise themselves if they are dwarfs but would rather be tall. If they have a weak body and only one eye, they will still be strong but they would rather have a strong body – this is so even though they know that they have something stronger than their body. They can endure bad health but prefer good health. [Seneca H22]

[D: Discourses; M: Meditations: H: On Happiness]

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