Quotes About Control

The knowledge of what is mine and what is not mine, what I can and cannot do. I must die. But must I die bawling? I must be exiled; but is there anything to keep me from going with a smile, calm and self-composed?

28. If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on his way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you?

No one can steal your peace of mind unless you let them.

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

You will never have to experience defeat if you avoid contests whose outcome is outside your control.

Let your will to avoid have no concern with what is not in man's power; direct it only to things in man's power that are contrary to nature.

Another person will not hurt you without your cooperation; you are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be.

And the way to be free is to let go of anything that is not within your control.

We aren't filled with fear except by things that are bad; and not by them, either, as long as it is in our power to avoid them.

Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not.

If someone in the street were entrusted with your body, you would be furious. Yet you entrust your mind to anyone around who happens to insult you, and allow it to be troubled and confused. Aren't you ashamed of that?

Be discriminating about what images and ideas you permit into your mind. If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.

who is your master? Whoever has authority over anything that you're anxious to gain or avoid.

understand that every event is indifferent and nothing to you, of whatever sort it may be; for it will be in your power to make a right use of it, and this no one can hinder.

People find particular things, however, frightening; and it's when someone is able to threaten or entice us with those that the man himself becomes frightening.

Every circumstance comes with two handles, which one of which you can hold it, while with the other conditions are insupportable.

None of these things are foretold to me; but either to my paltry body, or property, or reputation, or children, or wife. But to me all omens are lucky, if I will. For whichever of these things happens, it is in my control to derive advantage from it.

End the habit of despising things that are not within your power, and apply your aversion to things that are within your power.

for your part, do not desire to be a general, or a senator, or a consul, but to be free; and the only way to this is a disregard of things which lie not within our own power.

When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it.

Dès qu'une image viendra te troubler l'esprit, pense à te dire : « Tu n'es qu'image, et non la réalité dont tu as l'apparence. » Puis, examine-la et soumets-la à l'épreuve des lois qui règlent ta vie : avant tout, vois si cette réalité dépend de nous ou n'en dépend pas ; et si elle ne dépend pas de nous, sois prêt à dire : « Cela ne me regarde pas. »

You can be invincible, if you enter into no contest in which it is not in your power to conquer.

Philosophy does not claim to secure for us anything outside our control. Otherwise it would be taking on matters that do not concern it. For as wood is the material of the carpenter, and marble that of the sculptor, so the subject matter of the art of life is the life of the self.

Seek at once, therefore, to be able to say to every unpleasing semblance, "You are but a semblance and by no means the real thing." And then examine it by those rules which you have; and first and chiefly by this: whether it concerns the things which are within our own power or those which are not; and if it concerns anything beyond our power, be prepared to say that it is nothing to you.