Quotes from ancient Philosophers

Marcus Aurelius:

*”Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.”*

Seneca:
*”We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”*

Marcus Aurelius:
*”Don’t let your reflection on the whole sweep of life crush you. Don’t fill your mind with all the bad things that might still happen. Stay focused on the present situation.”*

Epictetus:
*”Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.”*

Marcus Aurelius:
*”The first step: Don’t be anxious. Nature controls it all. The second step: Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being.”*

Seneca:
*”True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”*

Epictetus:
*”When I see an anxious person, I ask myself, what do they want? For if a person didn’t want something outside of their own control, why would they be stricken by anxiety?”*

—

Anxiety lives in the future. Peace lives in the present.

You don’t escape it. You discard it — because it was never outside you to begin with.