a few quotes from Epictetus.......(AD 50 – 135)
he was a Greek Stoic philosopher.....looks like the dude would have made a hell of a trader ? 🙂
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
Anything or anyone capable of angering you becomes your master.
Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.
Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
No man is free who is not master of himself.
Don’t seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.
Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man’s task.
Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths. Remain steadfast…and one day you will build something that endures: something worthy of your potential.”
What concerns me is not the way things are, but the way people think things are.