Have you been drifting away from the principles and beliefs that you hold dear? It’s perfectly fine. It happens to all of us.
Every great power is dangerous for the beginner. You must therefore wield them as you are able, but in harmony with nature.” – EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.13.20.
We can reignite and restart whenever we like.
Indifference and acceptance are certainly better than disappointment or rage.
As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be – it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be.
This is true for the most oppressive of opponents. They’ll beat on us so long as we let them beat on us. But when we bring the fight to them, when we start choosing our battleground, focusing on where they are weak?
In public avoid talking often and excessively about your accomplishments and dangers, for however much you enjoy recounting your dangers, it’s not so pleasant for others to hear about your affairs.” – EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 33.14.
Philosophy is spiritual formation, care of the soul.
Remember: Between mountains lies the valley. You may have tumbled down from your former heights. You may have been thrown down. Or simply lost your way. But now you find yourself here. It is a low point. So? A long desert. A desolate valley. Either way, you’ll need to cross it. You’ll need patience and endurance and most of all love. You can’t let this period make you bitter. You have to make sure it makes you better. Because people are counting on you.
At some point, we must put our books aside and take action.
Casi siempre el camino a la victoria pasa por un lugar llamado ‘fracaso’”.
The foundation of a free country is that your freedom to swing your fist ends where someone else’s nose begins. That is, someone else is free to do what they like until it interferes with your physical body and space. This saying can work as a great personal philosophy as well.
Try your best not to create this fantasy bubble – live in what’s real. Listen and connect with people, don’t perform for them.
In the fable “The Golden Key,” the Old Man of the Earth shows a young boy the reality of the world, that there is no progress without risk. Moving an enormous stone from the floor of the cave, he shows the boy a hole that seems to go on forever. “That is the way,” he says. “But there are no stairs,” the boy replies. “You must throw yourself in,” he’s told. “There is no other way.” It’s scary, but there’s no way around it.
Elysium is a myth. One does not overcome an obstacle to enter the land of no obstacles.
Passing one obstacle simply says you’re worthy of more.
Longfellow captured the true heroism of Florence Nightingale in a poem. It wasn’t just her bravery, it wasn’t just the deprivations she endured without complaint. It was what she did for people. Honor to those whose words or deeds Thus help us in our daily needs, And by their overflow Raise us from what is low.
Objectivity means removing “you” – the subjective part – from the equation.
Never yet,” Theodore Roosevelt reminds us, “was worthy adventure worthily carried through by the man who put his personal safety first.
Longfellow talked about leaving footprints in the sands of time. But what’s the point? The point is the trail this leaves. Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.