Men are disturbed, not by things, but by their own notions regarding them.

Be not elated over excellences not your own.  If a horse should be elated and say, “I am handsome,” it would be supportable.  But when you are elated and say, “I have a handsome horse,” know that you are elated on what is, in fact, only the good of the horse.

Require not things to happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen.  Then all will go well.

In every happening, inquire of your mind how to turn it to proper account.

Never say of anything “I have lost it,” but “I have restored it.”  Is your child dead?  It is restored.  Is your wife dead?  She is restored.  Is your estate taken away from you?  Well, and is not that likewise restored?  “But he who took it away is a bad man.”  What is it to you by whose hands He who gave it hath demanded it again?  While He gives you to possess it, take care of it, but as of something not your own, like a passenger in an inn.

IV.—­OF TRANQUILLITY AND THE MEANS THERETO

If you would improve, lay aside such reasonings as prevent tranquillity.  It is better to die with hunger, exempt from grief and fear, than to live in affluence with perturbation.  It is better your servant should be bad than you unhappy.  Is a little oil spilt?  A little wine stolen?  Say to yourself, “This is the purchase paid for peace, for tranquillity, and nothing is to be had for nothing.”  When you call your servant, consider it possible he may not come at your call; or if he doth, that he may not do what you would have him do.  He is by no means of such importance that it should be in his power to give you disturbance.

Be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to externals and unessentials.  Do not wish to be thought to know.  And though you appear to others to be somebody, distrust yourself.  For be assured it is not easy at once to preserve your faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature, and to secure externals, since while you are careful of the one you will neglect the other.

Behave in life as at an entertainment.  Is anything brought round to you?  Put out your hand and take your share, with moderation.  Doth it pass by you?  Do not stop it.  Is it not yet come?  Do not stretch forth your desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you.  Thus do with regard to children, to a wife, to public posts, to riches, and you will be, some time or other, a worthy partner of the feasts of the gods.  And if you do not so much as take the things set before you, but are able even to despise them, then you will not only be a partner of the gods’ feasts, but of their empire.

Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a kind as the Author pleases to make it.  If short, of a short one; if long, of a long one.  If it be His pleasure you should act a poor man, a cripple, a governor, or a private person, see that you act it naturally.  For this is your business, to act well the character assigned you; to choose it is another’s.