Quotes About Equanimity

Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them … But you don't do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It's too easy.

Neither agreeable nor disagreeable," I answered. "It just is.

And so, resisting the temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I prefer to leave both well and ill alone and to think about something else.

Shall I make you a cup of tea? He asked. It was the classic response to crisis practiced throughout these islands—in England, Scotland, and elsewhere. Emotional turmoil, danger, even disaster could be faced with far greater equanimity if the kettle was switched on. War has been declared! There's been a major earthquake! The stock market has collapsed! Oh really? Let me put the kettle on….

Problems have a way of solving themselves.

But it was a mistake to go through life trying to interfere in things that were beyond your control, or which were going to happen anyway, no matter what you do. A certain amount of acceptance -which wasn't the same thing as cowardice, or indifference -was necessary or you would spend your life burning up with annoyance and rage.

Interesting things happen when we give up struggling with a situation or problem outside of our control.

Depending on how we handle them, feelings can lead to great trouble. But the feelings themselves just are. In that sense, feelings are like arms or legs. If you hit or kick someone, then your arms or legs are causing trouble. But there's nothing inherently wrong with arms or legs. The same with feelings.

The word translated sober here is nepho, and it means to "be self-possessed under all circumstances.

In this game you only lose when you fight back.

When faced with the vicissitudes of life, one's mind remains unshaken, sorrow-less, stainless, secure; this is the greatest welfare

What if rather than being disheartened by the ambiguity, the uncertainty of life, we accepted it and relaxed into it?

You can't get mad at weather because weather's not about you. Apply that lesson to most other aspects of life.

Spiritual security means you are fully alive and comfortable in your life as it is, without expecting anything.

The sooner you learn that life is not fair, the better off you'll be.

Live and let live, do not judge, take life as it comes and deal with it, everything will be okay.

Don't choose. Accept life as it is in its totality.

A middling talent makes for a more serene life.

If you expect your life to be full of ups and downs, then your mind will be much more peaceful.

I try not to get too emotional, whether it's going really well or going really bad, i always try to stay even keel -- which is great for golf, but it isn't always great for life.

What will happen in your life if you accept the invitation to stillness cannot be known ... what can be known is you will have a larger capacity to truly meet whatever appears.

[on the secret to a happy, content life] Do you want to know what my secret is? I don't mind what happens.

Life is like that. We don't know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don't know.

I've learned to control everything. I don't get angry at anything. Somebody can do me wrong. That's life. What good is it to get angry?