Top Highlights

• He believed that true strength consisted of one’s ability to show kindness, not violence or aggression.
• Seneca, for instance, notes that when animals are alarmed by the appearance of danger, they take flight, but after they have escaped, their anxiety soon abates and they return to grazing in peace once again.16 By contrast, the human capacity for thought allows us to perpetuate our worries beyond these natural bounds.
• the unwise are carried away by their initial impression of external events—including those that are terrible and to be feared—and continue to worry, ruminate, and even complain aloud about a perceived threat.
• The Stoic likewise tells himself that although the situation may appear frightening, the truly important thing in life is how he chooses to respond.
• The way we talk and think about events involves making value judgments, which shape our feelings.