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.

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The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

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Both happiness and unhappiness depend on perception

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Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

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When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

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Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.

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Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

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Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you'll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, 'Is this necessary?'

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If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. It is in your power to erase this judgment about it. If anything in your own nature gives you pain, you are who hinders you from correcting your opinion.

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The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

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