Sublime

He is not pleased when he is worshipped, and is not enraged when he is demeaned. Neither does he grieve in death, nor is he congratulatory in life.

“No one is crushed by Fortune, unless they are first deceived by her … those who aren’t pompous in good times, don’t have their bubbles burst with change. Against either circumstance, the stable person keeps their rational soul invincible, for it’s precisely in the good times they prove their strength against adversity.” —SENECA, ON CONSOLATION TO

But death certainly, and life, honour and dishonour, pain and pleasure, all these things equally happen to good men and bad, being things which make us neither better nor worse. Therefore they are neither good nor evil.

“But what is philosophy? Doesn’t it simply mean preparing ourselves for what may come? Don’t you understand that really amounts to saying that if I would so prepare myself to endure, then let anything happen that will? Otherwise, it would be like the boxer exiting the ring because he took some punches. Actually, you can leave the boxing ring

stoicism,

Thy present opinion founded on understanding, and thy present conduct directed to social good, and thy present disposition of contentment with everything which happens- that is enough.

Nous saisissons ici, si l'on peut dire sur le vif, l'attitude fondamentale du stoïcien. Tout d'abord, il « compose » sa vie, en accomplissant ses actions une par une, c'est-à-dire qu'il se concentre sur l'instant présent, sur l'action qu'il est en train de faire en ce moment, sans se laisser troubler par le passé ou le futur :

“I may wish to be free from torture, but if the time comes for me to endure it, I’ll wish to bear it courageously with bravery and honor. Wouldn’t I prefer not to fall into war? But if war does befall me, I’ll wish to carry nobly the wounds, starvation, and other necessities of war. Neither am I so crazy as to desire illness, but if I must suffer