Plain
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

When you decide that things outside your control are good or bad, you set yourself up for trouble. If you think something you can't control is good, you'll be upset when you don't get it. If you think something you can't control is bad, you'll be upset when it happens to you. Either way, you'll end up blaming the gods and hating other people. You'll blame whoever caused you to miss the good thing or fall into the bad thing. This way of thinking leads to many wrongs. We do harm when we care too much about things that aren't really up to us.

Meditations, Book 6, Section 36 Book 6 · 41 of 64
Freedom & Control Calm Your Mind
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

What things soever are not within the proper power and jurisdiction of thine own will either to compass or avoid, if thou shalt propose unto thyself any of those things as either good, or evil; it must needs be that according as thou shalt either fall into that which thou dost think evil, or miss of that which thou dost think good, so wilt thou be ready both to complain of the Gods, and to hate those men, who either shall be so indeed, or shall by thee be suspected as the cause either of thy missing of the one, or falling into the other. And indeed we must needs commit many evils, if we incline to any of these things, more or less, with an opinion of any difference.

Meditations, Book 6, Section 36 Book 6 · 41 of 64
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

Accept the life and events that fate has given you. Love the people you are meant to live with — love them truly. A tool works well when it fits its purpose, even if the person who made it is gone. But with natural things, the power that shaped them still lives within them. We should respect this power more. If we live according to its purpose, we can think that all is well with us and matches our deepest wishes. This is how the universe itself finds happiness.

Meditations, Book 6, Section 35 Book 6 · 40 of 64
Freedom & Control Human Nature
Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

Fit and accommodate thyself to that estate and to those occurrences, which by the destinies have been annexed unto thee; and love those men whom thy fate it is to live with; but love them truly. An instrument, a tool, an utensil, whatsoever it be, if it be fit for the purpose it was made for, it is as it should be though he perchance that made and fitted it, be out of sight and gone. But in things natural, that power which hath framed and fitted them, is and abideth within them still: for which reason she ought also the more to be respected, and we are the more obliged (if we may live and pass our time according to her purpose and intention) to think that all is well with us, and according to our own minds. After this manner also, and in this respect it is, that he that is all in all doth enjoy his happiness.

Meditations, Book 6, Section 35 Book 6 · 40 of 64
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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