Uncontrollable feelings

“From this we learn that a wise prince sees to it that never, in order to attack someone, does he become the ally of a prince more powerful than himself, except when necessity forces him, as I said above. If you win, you are the powerful king’s prisoner, and wise princes avoid as much as they can being in other men’s power.”
Niccolò Machiavelli

The Ancient Greek slave and Stoic philosopher Epictetus believed that you could control your feelings. He filed feelings under “things that are up to us”, in contrast to something like reputation, which he categorised as out of our control. If your feelings are causing you suffering, the Stoics believed