You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness. 

Recommended reading: Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel.

My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it.

Recommended reading: Beyond Good and Evil.

The fates guide the person who accepts them and hinder the person who resists them.

Recommended reading: Essential Works of Stoicism.

Objective judgement, now at this very moment. Unselfish action, now at this very moment. Willing acceptance – now at this very moment – of all external events. That’s all you need.

Recommended reading: Meditations.

The struggle against an obstacle inevitably propels the fighter to a new level of functioning. The extent of the struggle determines the extent of the growth. The obstacle is an advantage, not adversity. The enemy is any perception that prevents us from seeing this.

Recommended reading: The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.

Choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed – and you haven’t been.

Recommended reading: Meditations.

A paradox of life: The problem with patience and discipline is that it requires both of them to develop each of them.

Recommended reading: The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life – Master Any Skill or Challenge by Learning to Love the Process.

Mental confusion is a veil that prevents us from seeing reality clearly and clouds our understanding of the true nature of things. Practically speaking, it is also the inability to identify the behaviour that would allow us to find happiness and avoid suffering. When we look outward, we solidify the world by projecting onto it attributes that are in no way inherent to it.

Recommended reading: How to Solve Our Human Problems: The Four Noble Truths.

Human beings can change, and if someone has truly changed, forgiveness is not indulgence toward his past deeds but an acknowledgement of what he has become. Forgiveness is intimately linked to the possibility of human transformation.

Recommended reading: Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill.

There is no way to peace, peace is the way. There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way. There is no way to love, love is the way.

Recommended reading: Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives.