Stoicism

This is a way of life originally proposed by the Greek philosopher Zeno (333 BC-264 BC) which advocates:

• That in order to find true happiness, we must learn to be indifferent to external influences.
• If we can learn this indifference to external events, no matter how horrible (like slavery, torture, rape, imprisonment, etc.), then others will have no power over us in any significant way.
• That virtue resides in the will; therefore, the exercise of free will alone determines what is good and what is evil.
• A good life comes from being able to free oneself from desires and passions (stoicism shares this value with Hinduism and Buddhism).
• Your essential character cannot be destroyed by external events in your life.
• Virtue consists in a will that is in agreement with the happenings of nature in which all is part of a divine design that is unalterable.
• That all behavior is ultimately determined by natural laws, but without free will no one can be held responsible for their own actions.
• That responsibility for becoming good or bad resides with the individual and not with society at large.

from "Ethics in a Nutshell with Cartoons"