A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

by William B. Irvine

love all of our dear ones …, but always with the thought that we have no promise that we may keep them forever—nay, no promise even that we may keep them for long.”

when we say good-bye to a friend, we should silently remind ourselves that this might be our final parting.

As we go about our day, we should periodically pause to reflect on the fact that we will not live forever and therefore that this day could be our last.

By consciously thinking about the loss of what we have, we can regain our appreciation of it, and with this regained appreciation we can revitalize our capacity for joy.

there is a difference between contemplating something bad happening and worrying about it.

Negative visualization, in other words, teaches us to embrace whatever life we happen to be living and to extract every bit of delight we can from it. But it simultaneously teaches us to prepare ourselves for changes that will deprive us of the things that delight us. It teaches us, in other words, to enjoy what we have without clinging to it.