“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.”
Permalink: Marcus Aurelius
About this quote
Marcus Aurelius writes this in the private notebook he used to steady himself as emperor, so the judgement in question is his own. He moves the source of disturbance from the event to the reading of the event, which makes the remedy a matter of practice rather than luck.
Source: Meditations, Book 8