There are things which depend on us, and others which do not depend on us. What depends on us are opinions, movements of the heart, desires, aversions, and in a word, all our actions. What does not depend on us is the body, riches, reputation, dignities, and in a word, everything that is not the fruit of our actions. The things that depend on us are free by their nature, without impediment, without trouble; those that do not depend on us are weak, slaves, subject to impediment, and foreign to us. Remember then that if you take for free those things which are slaves by their nature, and for your own those things which are foreign to you, you will encounter obstacles, you will be afflicted, you will be troubled, you will complain of gods and men. But if you regard as your own only what is truly yours, and if you regard as foreign what is truly foreign, no one will ever force you, no one will ever prevent you, you will complain of no one, you will accuse no one, you will do nothing against your will, no one will harm you, you will have no enemy, for nothing harmful can happen to you. Aspiring then to such great goods, remember that you must not apply yourself to them feebly, but that you must entirely renounce some of the things that do not depend on us, and postpone the others for the moment. For if you want both these goods and honors and riches, perhaps you will not even obtain the latter, because you are aiming at two ends at once; and certainly you will miss the former, which alone give freedom and happiness.

Remember that desire promises to obtain what you desire, and that aversion promises to avoid what it opposes; and that he who does not obtain what he desires is unhappy, and he who falls into what he would like to avoid is miserable. If therefore you wish to avoid only what is contrary to your nature and which depends on us, you will never fall into what you want to avoid. But if you want to avoid disease, death, or poverty, you will be miserable. Therefore remove your aversion from all that does not depend on us, and transfer it to the things contrary to nature that depend on us. As for desire, suppress it entirely for the moment. For if you desire something that does not depend on us, it is inevitable that you fail; and as for the things that depend on us, they are still too unimportant for you to be able to desire them legitimately. But content yourself with tending towards them or moving away from them, but lightly, with reserve, and without overdoing anything.

In everything that flatters you, or is useful to you, or that you love, remember to tell yourself what it is, beginning with the smallest. If you love an earthen pot, tell yourself: "I love an earthen pot"; for if it breaks, you will not be troubled. If you embrace your child or your wife, tell yourself that you are embracing a mortal; for if they die, you will not be troubled.

When you are going to undertake an action, remember what you are doing. If you are going to bathe, picture to yourself what happens in the bath: some splash each other, others push each other, others insult each other, others steal; and thus you will undertake this action with more security, if you say to yourself first: "I want to bathe, and at the same time keep my will in accordance with nature." And likewise in every action. For thus, if some impediment arises with regard to the bath, you will immediately have this thought: "I did not only want to bathe, but also to keep my will in accordance with nature; and I will not keep it if I lose my temper against what happens."

What troubles men are not things, but the opinions they have of them. For example, death is nothing terrible, for if it were, it would have appeared so to Socrates; but the opinion that death is terrible, that is what is terrible. Thus therefore, when we are upset, troubled or afflicted, let us never accuse others, but ourselves, that is to say, our own opinions. It is the act of an ignorant person to accuse others of his own evils; he who begins to instruct himself accuses himself; he who is instructed accuses neither others nor himself.