If you would be good, first believe that you are bad.

We must be afraid of neither poverty nor exile nor imprisonment; of fear itself only should we be afraid.

When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it. It is not the things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance. Things and people are not what we wish them to be nor are they what they seem to be. They are what they are.

From now on practice saying to everything that appears unpleasant: You are merely an appearance and NOT what you appear to be.

To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control, but we can accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. Individuals, however, are responsible for their own actions which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline. Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power. As part of the universal city that is the universe, human beings have a duty of care to all fellow humans. The person who followed these precepts would achieve happiness.

Don't regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours.

Try not to react merely in the moment. Pull back from the situation. Take a wider view. Compose yourself.