Men are disturbed not by events, but by their opinions about events.
classical · stoicism
Epictetus
Epictetus · c. 50–135 · Greek
Former slave whose classroom in Nicopolis taught the distinction between what is up to us and what is not — the hinge of later Stoicism.
Happy is the man who can endure the highest and lowest fortune. He who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity has deprived misfortune of its power.
It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
No man is free who is not master of himself.
Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.