Plain
Seneca — The Senator

The person who laughs at humanity does more good than the person who cries over it. When you laugh, you still believe people can get better. When you cry, you've given up hope that anything will change. Someone who looks at the whole world and can't help but laugh has a stronger mind than someone who can't stop crying. The laugher is barely bothered by what he sees. He doesn't think any of this grand show is important, serious, or tragic.

On Peace of Mind, Section 15 84 of 100
Human Nature Calm Your Mind
Seneca — The Senator Original

Add to this that he who laughs at the human race deserves better of it than he who mourns for it, for the former leaves it some good hopes of improvement, while the latter stupidly weeps over what he has given up all hopes of mending. He who after surveying the universe cannot control his laughter shows, too, a greater mind than he who cannot restrain his tears, because his mind is only affected in the slightest possible degree, and he does not think that any part of all this apparatus is either important, or serious, or unhappy.

On Peace of Mind, Section 15 84 of 100
Seneca — The Senator

We should train our minds to see the common vices of ordinary people as foolish rather than hateful. We should be like Democritus instead of Heraclitus. Heraclitus wept whenever he went out in public. Democritus laughed. One saw all human actions as miseries. The other saw them as follies. We need to take a broader view of everything and put up with it more easily. It's better for a person to laugh at life than to cry over it.

On Peace of Mind, Section 15 83 of 100
Calm Your Mind Human Nature
Seneca — The Senator Original

We ought therefore to bring ourselves into such a state of mind that all the vices of the vulgar may not appear hateful to us, but merely ridiculous, and we should imitate Democritus rather than Heraclitus. The latter of these, whenever be appeared in public, used to weep, the former to laugh: the one thought all human doings to be follies, the other thought them to be miseries. We must take a higher view of all things, and bear with them more easily: it better becomes a man to scoff at life than to lament over it.

On Peace of Mind, Section 15 83 of 100
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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