People are disturbed not by the things that happen to them, but by the judgments they form about them; for example, death is nothing dreadful, since if it were, it would have appeared so to Socrates. What is dreadful, then, is the judgment that death is dreadful. When we encounter obstacles, or are troubled or distressed, let us never blame others, but ourselves—that is, our judgments. To blame others for one’s troubles is the act of an uneducated person; to blame oneself is the beginning of education; and when one’s education is complete, one will blame neither others nor oneself.