It is the business of philosophy to show us how to be nobly serene. The aim is always to keep our thoughts as evenly balanced in the mind as the Indian women keep the pitchers of water which they may be carrying evenly balanced upon their heads. A smugly self-satisfied, piously sleek complacency is not the sort of exalted serenity meant here. It would indeed be fatal to true progress, and especially fatal to the philosophic duty of making one's personal contribution toward the betterment of human existence. When such equilibrium of mind is established, when the ups and downs of external fortune are unable to disturb the inner balance of feeling, reason, and intuition, and when the mechanical reactions of the sense-organs are effortlessly controlled, we shall achieve a true, invincible self-sufficiency.
-- Notebooks Category 24: The Peace within You > Chapter 2 : Be Calm > # 201
