A body that cannot obey the dictates of the will is nothing more than a corpse that has not yet expired.

What answers directly to the exertion of your will? That, and only that, is your business. Do not invite needless distress and perturbation by insisting that the world must conform to your expectations or whims. Who, after all, do you think you are? Control the very small sphere that answers to your direction. As for the rest, cultivate gratitude

Just about anything could go wrong. It is unwise and wasteful to conflate the merely possible with the probable—or the inevitable.

Focus on understanding the world around you, your place in it, and your duties as a rational and decent human being. The rest is theater. Leave it to the actors.

Never underestimate the value of careful observation. You will learn more by watching, listening, and experiencing the outer and inner worlds with a clear mind than you will ever learn by talking, or by trying to demonstrate your intellectual prowess to others.

The only real failure is insufficient self-discipline or inadequate effort aimed at self-improvement.

The length of your life is not nearly as important as the quality of the person living it. Far better for you that you should live a shorter, but nobler life, than that you should continue in malingering mediocrity.

Secondarily, you must resist the temptation to become frustrated with the stupid, the liars, and the corrupt. This is, perhaps, your greatest challenge. Let them degrade themselves, but do not degrade yourself because of them. Their character is their punishment. It is not your concern.

You can control nothing other than your own attitudes, values, and efforts directed at mental discipline. The rest of the world is as it is, will be as it will be, and unfolds as it does with or without your consent.