Daniel Oates

“Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.”
― Epictetus, THE ART OF LIVING

“The old woman paid no attention to the camellia until that morning, when a fleck of pink caught her eye. The single saucer-size blossom was more magnificent than she could ever have imagined. More beautiful than any rose she'd ever seen, it swayed in the morning breeze with such an air of royalty, the old woman felt the urge to curtsey in its presence.”
― Sarah Jio, The Last Camellia

“Acceptance for what you truly can’t control, but responsibility for what you can control. The Stoic does not believe in categorizing so many things as ‘outside your control’ that you simply become a victim of circumstance. Far more is within your control than you might think.”
― Dan Crenshaw, Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage

“Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.”
― Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus