“The first thing to do—don’t get worked up. For everything happens according to the nature of all things, and in a short time you’ll be nobody and nowhere, even as the great emperors Hadrian and Augustus are now. The next thing to do—consider carefully the task at hand for what it is, while remembering that your purpose is to be a good human being.

“The more you say,” Robert Greene has written, “the more likely you are to say something foolish.”

To resent change is to wrongly assume that you have a choice in the matter.

Next, we must examine our impulses to act—that is, our motivations. Are we doing things for the right reasons?

“From Rusticus … I learned to read carefully and not be satisfied with a rough understanding of the whole, and not to agree too quickly with those who have a lot to say about something.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 1.7.3

“Why are you telling me this?!” the betrayed shouts as she walks out the door. “Because things have been going so well and I couldn’t take it anymore!”

“Don’t be bounced around, but submit every impulse to the claims of justice, and protect your clear conviction in every appearance.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.22

As Epictetus put it, “It is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows.”

“What is the fruit of these teachings? Only the most beautiful and proper harvest of the truly educated—tranquility, fearlessness, and freedom. We should not trust the masses who say only the free can be educated, but rather the lovers of wisdom who say that only the educated are free.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.1.21–23a