Make contentment easy to achieve. Seneca, Epistles 2.21.7-9

Seneca tells Lucilius how to handle desires (always cut them back!) and philosophical attribution (never credit another person for your own philosophy, which is simply your own fault, no matter what the world might say or seem to contribute). Two lessons for the price of one!

Ne gratis Idomeneus in epistulam meam venerit, ipse eam de suo redimet. Ad hunc Epicurus illam nobilem sententiam scripsit qua hortatur ut Pythoclea locupletem non publica nec ancipiti via faciat. Si vis inquit Pythoclea divitem facere, non pecuniae adiciendum sed cupiditati detrahendum est. Et apertior ista sententia est quam ut interpretanda sit, et disertior quam ut adiuvanda. Hoc unum te admoneo, ne istud tantum existimes de divitiis dictum: quocumque transtuleris, idem poterit. Si vis Pythoclea honestum facere, non honoribus adiciendum est sed cupiditatibus detrahendum; si vis Pythoclea esse in perpetua voluptate, non voluptatibus adiciendum est sed cupiditatibus detrahendum; si vis Pythoclea senem facere et implere vitam, non annis adiciendum est sed cupiditatibus detrahendum. Has voces non est quod Epicuri esse iudices: publicae sunt. Quod fieri in senatu solet faciendum ego in philosophia quoque existimo: cum censuit aliquis quod ex parte mihi placeat, iubeo illum dividere sententiam et sequor quod probo.

Lest Idomeneus appear a useless ornament to my letter, he shall pay postage for it now, in currency that he would recognize. To him Epicurus penned that noble sentiment we still read, in which the philosopher urges him not to make their mutual friend Pythocles (†) wealthy by any method too public or perilous. "If you desire to make Pythocles rich," Epicurus says, "do it by diminishing his desires rather than adding to his coffers." This judgment is at once too clear to require additional explanation, and too wise to need my support. One piece of advice I will permit myself to give you: don't think it a saying about material wealth only; wherever you carry it with you, it will manifest the same power for good. If you want to make Pythocles noble, for instance, you should on no account load him with honors: instead, you must remove his desires. If you wish to place him in a state of perpetual pleasure, you must not pile pleasures upon him: instead, do away with his desires. If you want Pythocles to live a long and full life, achieving the total measure of his humanity, the way to proceed is not by adding years, but by subtracting desires. Nor you should you think of these words as belonging uniquely, in any sense, to Epicurus: they are public property. In philosophy I follow the procedure used in the Roman senate: whenever someone else has delivered an opinion that pleases me, I deem that we share it and deliberately follow what I myself approve, rather than lean upon his judgment and so lose sight of my own.

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(†) Another citizen of Lampsacus in Epicurus' circle of friends there. A letter of Epicurus to Pythocles remains extant, but some suspect its authenticity, feeling it agrees but little with other letters from the philosopher (to Menoeceus and Herodotus). The letter presents the philosopher's take on reading the weather, viz. that every natural event has natural causes and should be greeted with resignation rather than fear or desire. In practical terms, Stoics and Epicureans could be quite similar (as Seneca notes).