People try to get away from it all---to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like. By going within.
Nowhere you can go is more peaceful---more free of interruptions---than your own soul. Especially if you have other things to rely on. An instant's recollection and there it is: complete tranquility. And by tranquility I mean a kind of harmony. So keep going away from it all---like that. Renew yourself. But keep it brief and basic. A quick visit should be enough to ward off all...and send you back ready to face what awaits you.
What's there to complain about? People's misbehavior? But take into consideration: that rational beings exist for one another; that doing what's right sometimes requires patience; that no one does the wrong thing deliberately; and the number of people who have feuded and envied and hated and fought and died and been buried; and then keep your mouth shut.
So keep this refuge in mind: the back roads of your self. Above all, no strain and no stress. Be straightforward. Look at things like a human being, like a citizen, like a mortal. And among the things you turn to, these thoughts: that things have no hold on the soul. They stand there unmoving, outside of it. That disturbance comes only from within---from our own perceptions That everything you see will soon alter and cease to exist.
Marcus Aurelius
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