Nothing external can raise or lower you

This passage by Stefan Zweig about Montaigne ¹, who is said to have been a Stoic, Epicurean and skeptic at the same time (I will come back to it after the excerpt), is, like all of Zweig's writings, admirable.

In just a few paragraphs, he summarizes the essence of the thinking I share with you in my work:
that of course
of acceptance,
again and again.
Acceptance of what is as the only religion, could be another name for the thought I follow myself, though that would be far too reductive.

So here is this text.
I know you've read similar texts before, but as you may already know, our work is also a form of word therapy. So, dear friend, enjoy this infinitely stoic literary beauty:

Here's the English translation ² of the text by Stefan Zweig:

"[Zweig speaking of Montaigne]
It is not the mayor of Bordeaux who visits me, nor the writer.
It is a friend coming to give me advice and to talk about himself.
Sometimes his voice betrays a slight sadness over the fragility of our human nature, the insufficiency of our understanding, the narrow-mindedness of our leaders, the nonsense and cruelty of our era, that noble sadness with which his disciple Shakespeare has indelibly endowed his most cherished characters, Hamlet, Brutus, or Prospero.
But then, I feel his smile again: why do you take it so to heart?
Why do you let yourself be disturbed by the absurdity and brutality of your era?
All this merely brushes your skin without reaching your inner self. The exterior can take nothing from you, it cannot shake you as long as you do not let yourself be shaken.
The man of understanding has nothing to lose.
Events have no power over you as soon as you refuse to participate in them, the madness of your era does not produce true distress if you maintain your clarity.
And even the most terrible of your experiences,
the apparent humiliations,
the twists of fate—you only feel them in proportion to your weakness towards them,
for
who else but you assigns them value and importance, associates them
   with joy
      and suffering? Nothing can raise or lower your self except you—even the heaviest external constraint is easy to dispel for those who maintain their firmness and inner freedom."

~

I hope these words touch you.
not in an emotional sense, but in the sense that they penetrate you.

Please allow me an interlude:
I told you above that Montaigne was simultaneously a Stoic, an Epicurean and a skeptic – these by the way, are the three great schools (the fourth being cynicism) that arose after Socrates, thus created his own philosophy. Spinoza, Nietzsche and Descartes were all influenced in different ways by the Stoics, the Cynics and the Skeptics to create their own systems. You aren't one of these great figures, and neither am I. Does that stop you from creating your own inner culture that fits your own vibes?

Certainly not.

So {{username}}, take what pleases you here or elsewhere, what feeds the fire of your faith or what brings out this special little spark within you.
Leave the rest.
But keep an open mind in all circumstances, no matter what.