Source identified
“Very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.”
The line challenges the assumption that a good life requires constant accumulation or ideal circumstances.
Source note: Meditations, Book VII, in George Long’s translation.
Source identified
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
Seneca argues against postponing life into an imagined future and asks the reader to treat the present day as complete enough for deliberate living.
Source note: Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 101.
Source identified
“The mind is its own place.”
Voice: Poetic speaker · Satan
The statement emphasizes how mental framing can alter the experience of circumstances, for good or ill.
Source note: Paradise Lost, Book I; the fuller sentence continues with heaven and hell as states the mind can make.
Source identified
“Wish the things which happen to be as they are.”
The advice is not passivity; it is a call to stop fighting reality before deciding how to respond to it.
Source note: A concise clause from Enchiridion 8, where Epictetus contrasts demanding preferred outcomes with accepting what occurs.
Source identified
“It is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself.”
A person can create an inward pause even when external conditions are noisy, using reflection to restore order before returning to action.
Source note: Meditations, Book IV, in George Long’s translation; this is the central clause of the retreat passage.
Source identified
“No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.”
An obsession with extending life can undermine the peace of the life already present, because fear of ending displaces attention from living.
Source note: Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 4.