Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.
EpictetusWe cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.
EpictetusAll human beings seek the happy life, but many confuse the means - for example, wealth and status - with that life itself. This misguided focus on the means to a good life makes people get further from the happy life. The really worthwhile things are the virtuous activities that make up the happy life, not the external means that may seem to produce it.
Epictetus