The Stoics' Meditations on Virtue

The Stoics were always going on about representations, in an attempt to address how and why the human mind fails to properly grapple with all the sensory data that is thrown its way. Marcus cautions against getting involved with grief over the death of a loved one or anger over the injustice of some crime because these emotions stem from a fundamental misrepresentation within our own heads. If you act as virtuously as you could have before the sad or mad event occurred, then your grief and anger are groundless. The universe unfolds itself, and we are mere witnesses. It was meant to be, and there is nothing you could or should have done about it.