Joshua E. Bigger

Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.

It is not even so much what happens to us - for this is always beyond our control - as to how we think about what happens to us - which we CAN control, if, indeed, we are conscious beings at all.

I MUST die. Must I then die lamenting? I MUST be put in chains. Must I then complain? I MUST go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. If you are a builder, build; if a writer, write; if an actor, act.

Who are those people by whom you wish to be admired? Are they not the same as those you call madmen? What then? Do you wish to be admired by the insane?

--Epictetus