There is no one moment that changes a person. There are many.
Love, Freud said, is the great educator. We learn when we give it. We learn when we get it. We get closer to stillness through it.
Nothing makes us feel this way; we choose to give in to such feelings.
The Stoics believed that every person, animal, and thing has a purpose or a place in nature. Everyone had a job-a specific duty. Even people who did bad things-they were doing their job of being evil because evil is a part of life. Do your job today. Whatever happens, whatever other people’s jobs happen to be, do yours. Be good.
Stuck in traffic? A few wonderful minutes to relax and sit. Your car broke down after idling for so long? Ah, what a nice nudge to take a long walk the rest of the way. A swerving car driven by a distracted, cell-phone-wielding idiot nearly hit you as you were walking and soaked you head to toe with muddy water? What a reminder about how precarious our existence is and how silly it is to get upset about something as trivial as being late or having trouble with your commute!
Todo lo que se hace bien es noble, por humilde que sea.
We should be the ones in control, not our emotions, because we are independent, self-sufficient people.
If a man can reduce his needs to zero,” he said, “he is truly free: there is nothing that can be taken from him and nothing anyone can do to hurt him.” To that we would add, “And he or she can also be still.
With buybacks, a CEO is making a rather incredible statement. She’s saying: the market is wrong. It’s valuing our company so incorrectly, and clearly has so little idea where we are heading that we’re going to spend the company’s precious cash on a bet that they’re wrong.
Those who receive the bare theories immediately want to spew them, as an upset stomach does its food. First digest your theories and you won’t throw them up. Otherwise they will be raw, spoiled, and not nourishing. After you’ve digested them, show us the changes in your reasoned choices, just like the shoulders of gymnasts display their diet and training, and as the craft of artisans show in what they’ve learned.” – EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.21.1–3.
The person is free who lives as they wish, neither compelled, nor hindered, nor limited – whose choices aren’t hampered, whose desires succeed, and who don’t fall into what repels them. Who wishes to live in deception – tripped up, mistaken, undisciplined, complaining, in a rut? No one. These are base people who don’t live as they wish; and so, no base person is free.” – EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.1.1–3a.
There is a helpful analogy to explain the logos: We are like a dog leashed to a moving cart. The direction of the cart will determine where we go. Depending on the length of the leash, we also have a fair amount of room to explore and determine the pace, but ultimately what each of us must choose is whether we will go willingly or be painfully dragged. Which will it be?
Find out why you’re after what you’re after. Ignore those who mess with your pace. Let them covet what you have, not the other way around. Because that’s independence.
Grant, who had expressed almost no prior interest in politics, and, in fact, had succeeded as a general precisely because he didn’t know how to play politics, chose instead to pursue the highest office in the land: the presidency. Elected by a landslide, he then presided over one of the most corrupt, contentious, and least effective administrations in American history. A genuinely good and loyal individual, he was not cut out for the dirty world of Washington, and it made quick work of him.
He who will do anything to avoid failure will almost certainly do something worthy of a failure. -Ryan Holiday.
We don’t think, we don’t complain, we don’t argue. We act. We have real strength – more strength than we know.
That on which you so pride yourself will be your ruin,” Montaigne had inscribed on the beam of his ceiling.
Pick up the phone and make the call to tell someone what they mean to you. Share your wealth. Run for office. Pick up the trash you see on the ground. Step in when someone is being bullied. Step in even if you’re scared, even if you might get hurt. Tell the truth. Maintain your vows, keep your word. Stretch out a hand to someone who has fallen.
As marksmen say these days, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
The perceiving eye sees “insurmountable obstacles” or “major setbacks” or even just “issues.