Discourses - Book IV   

Is it your will that I should go to Rome? I will go to Rome. To
Gyara? I will go to Gyara. I will go to Athens? I will go to Athens.
To prison? I will go to prison. If you should once say, "When shall
a man go to Athens?" you are undone. It is a necessary consequence
that this desire, if it is not accomplished, must make you unhappy;
and if it is accomplished, it must make you vain, since you are elated
at things at which you ought not to be elated; and on the other
hand, if you are impeded, it must make you wretched because you fall
into that which you would not fall into. Give up then all these
things. "Athens is a good place." But happiness is much better; and to
be free from passions, free from disturbance, for your affairs not
to depend on any man. "There is tumult at Rome and visits of
salutation." But happiness is an equivalent for all troublesome
things. If, then, the time comes for these things, why do you not take
away the wish to avoid them? what necessity is there to carry to avoid
a burden like an ass, and to be beaten with a stick? But if you do not
so, consider that you must always be a slave to him who has it in
his power to effect your release, and also to impede you, and you must
serve him as an evil genius.
There is only one way to happiness, and let this rule be ready
both in the morning and during the day and by night; the rule is not
to look toward things which are out of the power of our will, to think
that nothing is our own, to give up all things to the Divinity, to
Fortune; to make them the superintendents of these things, whom Zeus
also has made so; for a man to observe that only which is his own,
that which cannot be hindered; and when we read, to refer our
reading to this only, and our writing and our listening. For this
reason, I cannot call the man industrious, if I hear this only, that
he reads and writes; and even if a man adds that he reads all night, I
cannot say so, if he knows not to what he should refer his reading.
For neither do you say that a man is industrious if he keeps awake for
a girl; nor do I. But if he does it for reputation, I say that he is a
lover of reputation. And if he does it for money, I say that he is a
lover of money, not a lover of labour; and if he does it through
love of learning, I say that he is a lover of learning. But if he
refers his labour to his own ruling power, that he may keep it in a
state conformable to nature and pass his life in that state, then only
do I say that he is industrious. For never commend a man on account of
these things which are common to all, but on account of his
opinions; for these are the things which belong to each man, which
make his actions bad or good. Remembering these rules, rejoice in that
which is present, and be content with the things which come in season.
If you see anything which you have learned and inquired about
occurring, to you in your course of life, be delighted at it. If you
have laid aside or have lessened bad disposition and a habit of
reviling; if you have done so with rash temper, obscene words,
hastiness, sluggishness; if you are not moved by what you formerly
were, and not in the same way as you once were, you can celebrate a
festival daily, to-day because you have behaved well in one act, and