Quote

125 AD·Hierapolis, Turkey

It is not things that disturb us, but our judgments about things. For example, death is nothing terrible, for if it were, it would have appeared so to Socrates; but the judgment that death is terrible — that is the terrible thing.

Read the source→Enchiridion, §5

Similar Thoughts

Epictetus·135 AD

Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.

Marcus Aurelius·180 AD

External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.

Epictetus·135 AD

In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.

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Locus

Hierapolis, Turkey

Tempus