A passage from Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.3
✱
Vain pomp, plays on the stage, flocks of sheep, herds of oxen, mock combats, bones thrown to little dogs, crumbs into fish-ponds, labourings of ants and burden-carryings, runnings about of frightened little mice, puppets pulled by strings — all these are alike.
Related passages
✱
Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, 'I have been harmed.' Take away the complaint, and the harm is taken away.
✱
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
✱
Everything you're trying to reach — by taking the long way round — you could have right now, this moment. If you'd only stop thwarting your own attempts.