☀️ Micro Morning Meditation: We Are Not Disturbed By Events

But by our opinions about them.

1. Morning Contemplation

🎧 You can find the audio version of this morning’s contemplation below.

Good morning.

One of the philosopher Epictetus’s most-quoted lines goes as follows:

Men are not disturbed by events but by their opinions about them.

It’s not difficult to see why it’s shared so often. It’s direct, practical. It makes us stop and think, and gives us hope that we might be able to do something about our disturbances.

As Donald Robertson points out in How to Think Like Socrates, the next part of the passage is often neglected. The complete saying reads as follows: