Remember that it's not only the desire for wealth and position that debases and subjugates us, but also the desire for peace, leisure, travel, and learning. It doesn't matter what the external thing is, the value we place on it subjugates us to another... where our heart is set, there our impediment lies.
Keep this thought handy when you fee a fit of rage coming on- it isn't manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real man doesn't give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage and endurance- unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the close he is to strength.
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
At this moment you aren't on a journey, but wandering about being driven from place to place, even though what you seek — to live well — is found in all places more full of confusion than the Forum? Yet even there you can live at peace, if needed. — Seneca, Moral Letters, 28.5b-6a
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
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
But the wise person can lose nothing. Such a person has everything stored up for themselves, leaving nothing to Fortune, their own goods are held firm. bound in virtue, which requires nothing from chance, and therefore can't be either increased or diminished. — Seneca, On the Firmness of the Wise,5.4
Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
As you gain more and more access to your nature, you will also spontaneously receive creative thoughts because the field of pure potentiality is also the field of infinite creativity and pure knowledge. Franz Kafka, the Austrian philosopher and poet, once said,
"You need not leave your room. Remain sitting on your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait, just learn to become quiet, and still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll ecstasy at your feet."
