Plain
Seneca — The Senator

What you need, Serenus, is not the harsh treatments I mentioned earlier. You don't need to hold yourself back, get angry with yourself, or give yourself stern lectures. What you need is the last thing on my list: confidence in yourself. Believe that you're on the right path. Don't let yourself be distracted by all the confusing trails that cross your way — the paths that wanderers have made as they circle around, some even going in loops near the right path itself.

On Peace of Mind, Section 2 12 of 100
Knowing Yourself Calm Your Mind
Seneca — The Senator Original

What you need, therefore, is, not any of those harsher remedies to which allusion has been made, not that you should in some cases check yourself, in others be angry with yourself, in others sternly reproach yourself, but that you should adopt that which comes last in the list, have confidence in yourself, and believe that you are proceeding on the right path, without being led aside by the numerous divergent tracks of wanderers which cross it in every direction, some of them circling about the right path itself.

On Peace of Mind, Section 2 12 of 100
Seneca — The Senator

I've been thinking for a long time, my friend Serenus, about how to describe this state of mind. The best comparison I can find is people who have just recovered from a serious, long illness. Even though they're better, they still feel occasional aches and pains. They've beaten the disease, but they're still suspicious it might come back. They're perfectly healthy, yet they keep asking the doctor to check their pulse. Every time they feel a little warm, they worry the fever is returning. These people aren't sick, Serenus — they're just not used to being well. It's like a calm sea or lake that still has gentle ripples even after a storm has passed.

On Peace of Mind, Section 2 11 of 100
Calm Your Mind Knowing Yourself
Seneca — The Senator Original

I have long been silently asking myself, my friend Serenus, to what I should liken such a condition of mind, and I find that nothing more closely resembles it than the conduct of those who, after having recovered from a long and serious illness, occasionally experience slight touches and twinges, and, although they have passed through the final stages of the disease, yet have suspicions that it has not left them, and though in perfect health yet hold out their pulse to be felt by the physician, and whenever they feel warm suspect that the fever is returning. Such men, Serenus, are not unhealthy, but they are not accustomed to being healthy; just as even a quiet sea or lake nevertheless displays a certain amount of ripple when its waters are subsiding after a storm.

On Peace of Mind, Section 2 11 of 100
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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