James Stockdale

In short, what the Stoics say is ‘Work with what you have control of and you’ll have your hands full.

‘What is the fruit of your doctrines?’ someone once asked Epictetus. ‘Tranquility, fearlessness, and freedom,’ he answered.

Look not for any greater harm than this: destroying the trustworthy, self-respecting well-behaved man within you.

So make sure in your heart of hearts, in your inner self, that you treat your station in life with *indifference,* not with contempt, only with *indifference.*

But during the time interval between pulling the ejection handle and coming to rest on the street, I had become a man with a mission.

So what Epictetus was telling his students was that there can be no such thing as being the ‘victim’ of another. You can only be a ‘victim of yourself.’ It’s all in how you discipline your mind.

It’s time to talk about heroism and what I think it is. This may sound strange, but to me a hero is a man who will not accept the status quo if it does not meet his standards. ... He will stand up and turn his world around.

The notion that human beings are always victims of their circumstances is an affront to those bold spirits who throughout history have spent their lives prevailing over adversity.

George Bernard Shaw said that most people who fail complain that they are victims of circumstances. Those who get on in this world, he said, are those who go out and look for the right circumstances. And if they can’t find them they make their own.

Who is the invincible man? He who cannot be dismayed by any happening beyond his control.

I don’t subscribe to environmental, genetic, or any simple determinism. Will is the thing. Man makes his character here on earth. I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul.

The turning point in anybody’s life, he said, is when you come to that fork in the road where you have to decide whether to risk your life or to lose your conscience. One road leads up, one down. To survive at any cost is to think me first, to lose your conscience, to take the low road. To support others at any cost, is to risk your life, to take the high road.