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

by William B. Irvine

should form and maintain relations with others.

we should be careful about whom we befriend. We should also, to the extent possible, avoid people whose values are corrupt, for fear that their values will contaminate ours.

negative visualization. We should contemplate the impermanence of all things. We should imagine ourselves losing the things we most value, including possessions and loved ones. We should also imagine the loss of our own life. If we do this, we will come to appreciate the things we now have, and because we appreciate them, we will be less likely to form desires for other things.

we should not bother about things over which we have no control.

When we spend time dealing with things over which we have some but not complete control, we should be careful to internalize our goals.

We should be fatalistic with respect to the external world: We should realize that what has happened to us in the past and what is happening to us at this very moment are beyond our control, so it is foolish to get upset about these things.

Marcus Aurelius: “Nothing is worth doing pointlessly.”)

laughter gives expression to the mildest of the emotions, and deems that there is nothing important, nothing serious, nor wretched either, in the whole outfit of life.”