Whenever someone has done wrong by you, immediately consider what notion of good or evil they had in doing it. For when you see that, you'll feel compassion, instead of astonishment or rage. For you may yourself have the same notions of good and evil, or similar ones, in which case you'll make an allowance for what they've done. But if you no longer hold the same notions, you'll be more readily gracious for their error. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.26(resource) Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Whenever you find yourself blaming providence, turn it around in your mind and you will see that what has happened is in keeping with reason. —Epictetus, Discourses, 3.17.1
[Javits Wild] When he was in the country, he always asked the people he chanced to meet what "normal life" was like, because he had forgotten. The answers varied, and he gradually came to realize that, even when he was surrounded by other people, he was absolutely alone in the world. He decided to draw up a list of what constituted normal attitudes and behavior, based on what people did rather than on what they said.
How happy you are depends on whether you are willing to be happy. Happiness will elude you as long as you are thinking and doing what's wrong for you. And it will come easily when you are thinking and doing what's right for you. Above all, ensure that you don't get conned into believing happiness is what someone else deems it to be.
~ Ernie Zelinski
