Discontent, disharmony and unhappiness have been a perennial feature of human existence. Yet at the beginning of the 20 first century, we appear to be just as miserable as the ancients were. We share the same human pathology? We desire and spend our lives pursuing that which is not within our complete control,. Meanwhile, we neglect to focus our attention on that which we do control, our value judgments and our impulses to act. The result is exactly what epictetus warned us about in inciridian one. And neither did the ancient stoics. While the stoics certainly did practise asceticism as an essential part of their training regimen, and they did promote a simpler way