Official Stoic thought of the day

[Harold falcon]

"Where is good? In our reasoned choices. Where is evil? In our reasoned choices. Where is that which is neither good nor evil? In the things outside our own reasoned choices."

Epictetus, Discorurses 2.16.1.

 

[wojt]

“Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. But for my part I have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility, the nature of evil and its meanness, and also the nature of the culprit himself, who is my brother (not in the physical sense, but as a fellow creature similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine); therefore none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading. Neither can I be angry with my brother or fall foul of him; for he and I were born to work together, like a man’s two hands, feet or eyelids, or the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Nature’s law – and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

 

[Harold falcon]

“Let us therefore set out wholeheartedly, leaving aside our many distractions and exert ourselves in this single purpose, before we realize too late the swift and unstoppable flight of time and are left behind. As each day arises, welcome it as the very best day of all, and make it your own possession. We must seize what flees."

Seneca, Moral Letters.

 

[Harold falcon]

“Let us produce some bold act of our own - and join the ranks of the most emulated.”

Seneca, Moral Letters.

 

[wojt]

“Let us therefore set out wholeheartedly, leaving aside our many distractions and exert ourselves in this single purpose, before we realize too late the swift and unstoppable flight of time and are left behind. As each day arises, welcome it as the very best day of all, and make it your own possession. We must seize what flees."

Seneca, Moral Letters.

I’m a big fan of “on shortness of life” by Seneca, go to book to recapture perspective on life

 

[Harold falcon]

“The greatest peace of mind is doing nothing wrong. Those who lack self-control live disoriented and distorted lives.”

Seneca, Moral Letters.

Edit - lol, homophones.

 

[Harold falcon]

“Kindness is invincible, but only when it’s sincere, with no hypocrisy or faking. For what can even the most malicious person do if you keep showing kindness and, if given the chance, you gently point out where they went wrong - right as they are trying to harm you?”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.

 

[Harold falcon]

“Don’t set your mind on things you don’t possess as if they were yours, but count your blessings you actually possess and think how much you would desire them if they weren’t already yours. But watch yourself, that you don’t value these things to the point of being troubled if you should lose them.”

- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.

 

[Harold falcon]

“If you don’t wish to be a hot head, don’t feed your habit. Try as a first step to remain calm and count the days you haven’t been angry. I used to be angry every day, then every other day, then every third or fourth. If you make it as far as thirty days, thank God! For habit is first weakened then obliterated. When you can say ‘I didn’t lose my temper today, or the next day, or for three or four months, but kept my cool under provocation,’ you will know you are in better health.”

- Epictetus, Discourses.

 

[wojt]

Somehow I never read Epictetus, I need to fix that

 

[Harold falcon]

“Show me someone sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and happy, exiled and happy, disgraced and happy. Show me! By God, how much I’d like to see a Stoic! But since you can’t show me someone so perfectly formed at least show me someone actively forming himself this way... Show me!”

Epictetus, Discourses.

 

[Harold falcon]

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.

 

[Piobaire]

"We will all die alone."

Piobaire, Prognostications of Piobaire.

 

[Harold falcon]

"We will all die alone."

Piobaire, Prognostications of Piobaire.

 

[Harold falcon]

“Pay attention to what is in front of you - the principle, the task, or what’s being portrayed.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.