Lose anxiety. Seneca 1.4.6-7
Life is uncertain. A precondition for happiness, Seneca believes, is letting go of our attachment to any particularly good or pleasant thing we currently have. Once again the Roman sounds like a Buddhist. You can hear this passage <here>.
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Fac itaque tibi iucundam vitam omnem pro illa sollicitudinem deponendo. Nullum bonum adiuvat habentem nisi ad cuius amissionem praeparatus est animus; nullius autem rei facilior amissio est quam quae desiderari amissa non potest. Ergo adversus haec quae incidere possunt etiam potentissimis adhortare te et indura. De Pompei capite pupillus et spado tulere sententiam, de Crasso crudelis et insolens Parthus; Gaius Caesar iussit Lepidum Dextro tribuno praebere cervicem, ipse Chaereae praestitit; neminem eo fortuna provexit ut non tantum illi minaretur quantum permiserat. Noli huic tranquillitati confidere: momento mare evertitur; eodem die ubi luserunt navigia sorbentur.
Make your life pleasant by putting away all anxiety for it. No good thing helps the one who has it unless the mind is prepared to lose it, and there is nothing easier to lose than that which, once lost, is beyond desire. Address yourself then to those things which can strike even the most powerful; harden yourself against them. Orphan and eunuch cast the deciding vote against Pompey (†); the cruel and insolent Parthian did for Crassus (‡). Gaius Caesar told Lepidus to offer the tribune Dextrus his neck; his own he presented to Chaerea (*). Never yet did fortune promote a man beyond the threat of being cast down from whatever eminence she had allowed him. Do not trust this moment of calm: the sea changes in a moment; boats are swallowed up where they played, on the very same day.
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(†) Defeated at Pharsalus (48 BC) by the forces of his rival Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus was assassinated as the result of a plot by the government of Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator, the orphan mentioned by Seneca. Chief among the plotters was the eunuch Potheinus, who served the boy-king as regent. After the Roman was killed, his executioners removed his head and threw his body into the sea off Pelusium, in Egypt. The head was later exhibited to Caesar, when he came there. He received it and Pompey's signet-ring with tears, and put Potheinus to death (Plutarch, Pompey 80).
(‡) After joining Pompey and Caesar to form the first triumvirate, Marcus Licinius Crassus perished at the battle of Carrhae (53 BC). Despite a lack of any pressing need to go to war, Crassus determined to invade Parthia under pretense of defending the interest of Mithridates IV against his brother Orodes II, the ruling monarch. Caught on the march by a force that his own army outnumbered more than two to one, Crassus was nevertheless pinned down and defeated handily. While negotiating terms of surrender with the Parthian general Surena, Crassus found himself fighting for his life. After his death, legend records that the Parthians poured molten gold down his throat (Dio Cassius xl.27), in token of his notorious greed, and used his severed head as a prop in staging a production of Euripides' Bacchae for the court of king Orodes (Plutarch, Crassus 33).
(*) Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus is better known as Caligula, 'Little Boots', a nickname bestowed upon him by soldiers who fought under his father Germanicus. After his father's untimely death, he was adopted by the emperor Tiberius. Unlike his brothers Drusus and Nero, he survived the power-struggle between his adopted father and his mother Agrippina to inherit the Principate at the age of 24. His reign was marked by acts of willful passion, including the execution of his brother-in-law, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, which occurred after Caligula had promised more than once to designate Lepidus his heir (Dio Cassius lix.22). Eventually, folk had enough of such shenanigans, and the emperor was cut down by his body-guards, with Cassius Chaerea taking the lead (Dio Cassius lix.29; Suetonius, Caligula 56-58).
(*) Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus is better known as Caligula, 'Little Boots', a nickname bestowed upon him by soldiers who fought under his father Germanicus. After his father's untimely death, he was adopted by the emperor Tiberius. Unlike his brothers Drusus and Nero, he survived the power-struggle between his adopted father and his mother Agrippina to inherit the Principate at the age of 24. His reign was marked by acts of willful passion, including the execution of his brother-in-law, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, which occurred after Caligula had promised more than once to designate Lepidus his heir (Dio Cassius lix.22). Eventually, folk had enough of such shenanigans, and the emperor was cut down by his body-guards, with Cassius Chaerea taking the lead (Dio Cassius lix.29; Suetonius, Caligula 56-58).