Quotes About Contentment

As the fire-lights in harbors by a few pieces of dry wood raises a great flame and give sufficient help to ships which are wandering on the sea; so also an illustrious man in a state which is tempest-tossed, while he is himself satisfied with a few things does great services to his citizens.

When you desire something outside your sphere of power, you set yourself up for disappointment

If you wish to be rich, you should know that it is neither a good thing nor at all in your power: but if you wish to be happy, you should know that it is both a good thing and in your power, for the one is a temporary loan of fortune, and happiness comes from the will.

If you would improve, be content to be thought foolish and dull with regard to externals. Do not desire to be thought to know anything; and though you should appear to others to be somebody, distrust yourself. For be assured, it is not easy at once to keep your will in harmony with nature and to secure externals; but while you are absorbed in the one, you must of necessity neglect the other. XIV

No exijas que los acontecimientos sucedan como deseas. Acéptalos tal como son realmente. Así te será posible ser feliz.

If you intend to improve, throw away such thoughts as these: if I neglect my affairs, I shall not have the means of living: unless I chastise my slave, he will be bad. For it is better to die of hunger and so to be released from grief and fear than to live in abundance with perturbation; and it is better for your slave to be bad than for you to be unhappy.

For you will learn by experience that it's true: the things that men admire and work so hard to get prove useless to them once they're theirs.

Our possessions should be suited to our bodies and lives, just as our shoes are suited to our feet. Could you run better if your shoes were larger than your feet, or gold-plated and diamond studded? Of course not. Once you let your appetite exceed what is necessary and useful, desire knows no bounds.

Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly.

The origin of sorrow is this: to wish for something that does not come to pass.

I am prepared to show you that you have resources and a character naturally strong and resilient; show me in return what grounds you have for being peevish and malcontent.

Epictetus is not superior to Socrates; but if he is not inferior, this is enough for me; for I shall never be a Milo, and yet I do not neglect my body; nor shall I be a Croesus, and yet I do not neglect my property; nor, in a word, do we neglect looking after anything because we despair of reaching the highest degree.

A person's worth, after all, is not found in possessions or style.

There is one road to peace and happiness (keep the thought near by morning, noon and night): renunciation of externals;

________ Do not wish that all things will go well with you, but that you will go well with all things.

When you are by yourself you should call it peace and liberty, and consider yourself the gods' equal. When you're with a large group you shouldn't say you're in a mob or crowd, but a guest at a feast or festival – and in that spirit learn to enjoy it.

I must be exiled; but is there anything to keep me from going with a smile, calm and self-composed?

Getting rid of these, too, requires looking to God for help, trusting him alone, and submitting to his direction. [47] Then if you're not willing to do this – all tears and agitation – you will serve someone physically more powerful than you, and continue to look outside yourself for happiness, fated never to find it. And that is because you look for it in the wrong place, forgetting to look where it really lies.

When we are guests at a dinner party, we content ourselves with the food on offer; if anyone were to tell the host to put out fish or cake, he would seem rude. In real life, however, we ask the gods for what they do not give, and this though they have provided us with plenty.

Don't demand or expect that events happen as you would want them too. Accept events as they actually happen. That way, peace is possible

Desire to become pure, and, once pure, you will be at ease with yourself, and comfortable in the company of God.

Whatever is enough is abundant in the eyes of virtue.

Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.

If you wish to have peace and contentment, release your attachment to all things outside your control.