1 - What kind of peace is this if it can be so easily disturbed? … True peace of mind is continuous and undisturbed.” [Epictetus D4.4]

2 - Live your days in untroubled serenity. [Marcus Aurelius, M7.68]

3 - Certain things are under our power at the beginning. But, as they develop, they drag us along by their momentum and do not allow us to pull back. [Seneca, A1.7]

4 - I will pay attention to the boundaries that I need to respect; act confidently but also with restraint; and without desire or aversion regarding externals. [Epictetus D4.4]

5 - Refuse to be forced even though the world may scream at you with its demands, even though the wild beasts may tear your body to bits. Marcus Aurelius, M7.68]

6 - The mind, once it gives itself to anger, love, or any other passion, has no chance to check its momentum. [Seneca, A1.7]

7 - I pay attention to other people’s words and actions. I don’t do this looking for an opportunity to criticize or ridicule them but to make sure that I don’t make the same mistakes. [Epictetus D4.4]

8 - There is nothing that can stop your mind from being serene, from correctly understanding what is happening, and from making use of your experience. [Marcus Aurelius, M7.68]

9 - It is best to reject straight away the first inducements to anger, to resist it from the very beginning, and to take care not to be drawn into it. [Seneca, A1.8]

10 - When you eat, do you wish you were reading? Aren’t you happy to be eating in a manner you learned by reading? The same goes for bathing and exercising. [Epictetus D4.4]

11 - The present moment is always an opportunity for exercising reason and fraternity. [Marcus Aurelius, M7.68]

12 - Reason counts for nothing once we admit passion into our mind, and voluntarily give it a certain authority. From then on, it will do whatever it pleases, not what we allow it to do. [Seneca, A1.8]

13 - If you are calm, poised and dignified, if you observe what is happening (rather than being observed) around you, if you don’t envy those who are honoured ahead of you, and if you don’t let externals confuse you, what else do you need? Books? Why? For what purpose? [Epictetus D4.4]

14 - To live each day as your last – never in a frenzy, never indifferent, never pretentious – is the perfection of character. [Marcus Aurelius, M7.69]

15 - Passion and reason, as I said before, don’t have distinct provinces. Rather the mind itself changes for better or for worse. [Seneca, A1.8]

16 - Where you are enthusiastic about something, there you are bound to face obstacles. You desire what is not under your control? Be prepared to be obstructed, to be frustrated, and to fail. [Epictetus D4.4]

17 - The gods live eternally, yet they don’t resent having to put up with human beings and their behaviour throughout eternity. [Marcus Aurelius, M7.70]

18 - How then can reason recover when it has given way to anger and is defeated and held down by vices? How can it free itself from a confused mixture of mostly the lower qualities? [Seneca, A1.8]

19 - Just as you laugh at others, laugh at yourself too. [Epictetus D4.4]

20 - How ridiculous that you don’t try to flee from your faults (which is possible), but try to flee from other people’s faults (which is not possible)! [Marcus Aurelius, M7.71]

21 - When either fear or greed gets the upper hand, it is not because of reason that anger is subdued. It is due to an untrustworthy and temporary truce between the passions. [Seneca, A1.8]

22 - Is that your job. Sunning yourself? Is it not to be happy? Is it not to be free of obstructions and restraints? [Epictetus D4.4]

23 - If our reasoning and social faculty find something as unintelligent and unsocial, then it correctly judged is as inferior. [Marcus Aurelius, M7.72]

24 - Anger has no use. It does not stir the mind to brave actions. [Seneca, A1.9]

25 - Remember this. The more value you attach to external things, the less free you are to choose. Things outside our control include not only office but freedom from office also; not only business but leisure also. [Epictetus D4.4]

26 - You have done a good action, and someone benefited from it. Why are you, like an idiot, holding out for more – such as applause for your kindness, or some favour in return? [Marcus Aurelius, M7.73]

27 - “Anger,” says Aristotle, “is necessary, nor can any fight be won without it, unless it fills the mind, and kindles up the spirit. It must, however, be made use of, not as a general, but as a soldier.” This is not true. [Seneca, A1.9]

28 - Don’t be hard to please. Don’t complain about trivial things. [Epictetus D4.4]]

29 - No one tires of receiving benefits, but benefits come from acting in accordance with nature. So never tire of receiving such benefits by doing beneficial acts for others. [Marcus Aurelius, M7.74]

30 - The mind, once it gives itself to anger, love, or any other passion, has no chance to check its momentum. Its weight and the downward slide of vices get hold of it and pull it down to the bottom. [Seneca, A1.7]

31 - If you happen to find yourself alone or with a few other people, call this peace and go along for the duration. Talk to yourself, work on your impressions, and sharpen your preconceptions. [Epictetus D4.4]

D: Discourses. M: Meditations. A: On Anger

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