Still Stalking

A good conscience, Schopenhauer says, means more than a good reputation. Our greatest goal should be good health and intelectual wealth, which lead to an inexhaustible supply of ideas, independence, and moral life. Inner equanimity stems from knowing that it is not things that disturb us, but our interpretations of things.

This last idea — that the quality of our life is determined by how we interpret our experiences, not by the experiences themselves — is an important therapeutic doctrine dating back to antiquity. A central tenet in the school of Stoicism, it passed through Zeno, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, to become a fundamental concept in both dynamic and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Staring at the Sun, Irvin Yalom