Moral letters to Lucilius by Seneca and
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius should be required reading. There's more wisdom in those 2 books than all the other books I've ever read- including the great religious texts-The Bible, Rig Veda, etc.
"Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die. 6. For this reason, make life as a whole agreeable to yourself by banishing all worry about it. No good thing renders its possessor happy, unless his mind is reconciled to the possibility of loss; nothing, however, is lost with less discomfort than that which, when lost, cannot be missed. "
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No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it, or believes that living through many consulships is a great blessing.
Show me that the good in life does not depend upon life's length, but upon the use we make of it; also, that it is possible, or rather usual, for a man who has lived long to have lived too little."
