“Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.”
“For what else is tragedy than the portrayal in tragic verse of the sufferings of men who have attached high value to external things?”
“It is possible to learn the will of nature from the things in which we do not differ from each other.
For example, when someone else’s little boy breaks his cup we are ready to say, ‘It’s one of those things that just happen.’ Certainly, then, when your own cup is broken you should be just the way you were when the other person’s was broken.
Transfer the same idea to larger matters.
Someone else’s child is dead, or his wife.
There is no one would not say, ‘It’s the lot of a human being.’ But when one’s own dies, immediately it is, ‘Alas! Poor me!’ But we should have remembered how we feel when we hear of the same thing about others.” ~ Epictetus ~
Electric Icarus Project 