Quotes About Perspective

It isn't events themselves that disturb people, but only their judgments about them.

But first consider how much more sparing and patient of hardship the poor are than we.

When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it.

Let death and exile and every other thing which appears dreadful be daily before your eyes; but most of all death: and you will never think of anything mean nor will you desire anything extravagantly.

Remind yourself that what you love is mortal … at the very moment you are taking joy in something, present yourself with the opposite impressions. What harm is it, just when you are kissing your little child, to say: Tomorrow you will die, or to your friend similarly: Tomorrow one of us will go away, and we shall not see one another any more?

People feel disturbed not by things, but by the views they take of them.

Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions

It is not things that trouble us, but our judgements about things.

But I want power and renown so that I may help other people," you say. What do you mean by "help"? Can you really give them happiness and satisfaction—things that are in their own spheres of power, not yours?

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.

We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.

These are not the circumstances that I want.' Is it up to you to choose them? You have been given that particular body, these particular parents and brothers, this particular social position and place to live. You come to me hoping that I can somehow change these circumstances for you, not even conscious of the assets that are already yours that make it possible to cope with any situation you face.

Don't mistake your assumptions for the truth.

Things and people are not what we wish them to be nor what they seem to be. They are what they are.

The fear of death stems from the view that it is fearful.

Yes, but what good will all this do me when a child of mine dies, or if my brother, or I myself, have to die or be tortured?' [19] Nothing. Because that's not why you came, not why you took your seat in front of me, not the reason you sometimes sacrificed sleep to study by lamplight.

Never say about anything, "I have lost it," but instead, "I have given it back.

If you are told that such an one speaks ill of you, make no defence against what was said, but answer, He surely knew not my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these only!

Whenever misfortune befalls you, ask yourself how you would react if it were someone else in the same situation.

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.

If a person had handed over your body to a stranger, you would certainly be angry. So why do you not feel any shame in handing over your own mind to any criticiser, to be unsettled and annoyed.

I will throw you into prison. Correction – it is my body you will throw there.

Who exactly are these people that you want to be admired by? Aren't they the same people you are in the habit of calling crazy? And is this your life ambition, then – to win the approval of lunatics

Is the child or wife of another dead? There is no one who would not say, "This is an accident of mortality." But if anyone's own child happens to die, it is immediately, "Alas! how wretched am I!" It should be always remembered how we are affected on hearing the same thing concerning others.