Stoic Snippets 143

In every pain let this thought be present, that there is no dishonor in it, nor does it make the governing intelligence worse, for it does not damage the intelligence either so far as the intelligence is rational or so far as it is social. 

Indeed in the case of most pains let this remark of Epicurus aid you, that pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if you bear in mind that it has its limits, and if you add nothing to it in imagination. 

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7. 64 

IMAGE: Frank Hurley, Endurance Trapped in Antarctic Pack Ice (1915) 

Few events can inspire fortitude as brilliantly as Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic Expedition—from every failure can come a triumph, from every suffering an opportunity to do right for your fellows.