Quotes About Emotions

Whereas most people valued fame and fortune,6 a Stoic's primary goal in life was to attain and then maintain tranquility—to avoid, that is, experiencing negative emotions while continuing to enjoy positive emotions.

we are very much responsible for our happiness as well as our unhappiness.

Seneca writes, "Nature requires from us some sorrow, while more than this is the result of vanity. But never will I demand of you that you should not grieve at all."1

Stoic tranquility was a psychological state marked by the absence of negative emotions, such as grief, anger, and anxiety, and the presence of positive emotions, such as joy.

Although it might not be possible to eliminate grief from our life, it is possible, Seneca thinks, to take steps to minimize the amount of grief we experience over the course of a lifetime

la serenidad estoica era un estado psicológico caracterizado por la ausencia de emociones negativas, como la aflicción, la ira y la ansiedad, y la presencia de emociones positivas, como la alegría.

The Stoics, as we have seen, thought tranquility was worth pursuing, and the tranquility they sought, it will be remembered, is a psychological state in which we experience few negative emotions, such as anxiety, grief, and fear, but an abundance of positive emotions, especially joy.

Seneca, I am certain, was right when he pointed to laughter as the proper response to "the things which drive us to tears."2 Seneca also observes that "he shows a greater mind who does not restrain his laughter than he who does not restrain his tears, since the laughter gives expression to the mildest of the emotions, and deems that there is nothing important, nothing serious, nor wretched either, in the whole outfit of life.

It is not how the wrong is done that matters, but how it is taken"4—as did Marcus Aurelius: "If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

How much should a Stoic grieve? In proper grief, Seneca tells Polybius, our reason "will maintain a mean which will copy neither indifference nor madness, and will keep us in the state that is the mark of an affectionate, and not an unbalanced, mind.

the goal of the Stoics was not to banish emotion from life but to banish negative emotions.

The emotions are perfectly willing to listen to the intellect as long as the intellect isn't trying to impose its views but is merely trying to help the emotions get what they want.

Even though I'd like to avoid the circumstance or situation, I will not. Avoidance behavior will only increase my anxiety. I will go ahead, experience the unpleasant feelings, and I'll get through it.

depth. It is not, however, events either past or present which make us feel the way we feel, but our interpretation of those events. Our feelings

If you believe you cannot live without a certain person or that your entire existence depends on somebody else, you are setting yourself up to be hurt by that misbelief. If

People vote their resentment, not their appreciation. The average man does not vote for anything, but against something.

Cruelty has a human heart,And Jealousy a human face;Terror, the human form divine,And Secrecy, the human dress.

Man was made for joy and woe,And when this we rightly knowThrough the world we safely go.

My mother groan'd! my father wept.Into the dangerous world I leapt:Helpless, naked, piping loud,Like a fiend hid in a cloud.

Never seek to tell thy loveLove that never told can be;For the gentle wind does moveSilently, invisibly.I told my love, I told my love,I told her all my heart;Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears—Ah, she doth depart.Soon as she was gone from meA traveler came bySilently, invisibly—Oh, was no deny.

Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache do be my enemy--for friendship's sake.

Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.

We never love anyone. Not really. We only love our idea of another person. It is some conception of our own that we love. We love ourselves, in fact.

It terrifies me, the fragility of these moments in our lives.