“Don’t return to philosophy as a task-master, but as patients seek out relief in a treatment of sore eyes, or a dressing for a burn, or from an ointment. Regarding it this way, you’ll obey reason without putting it on display and rest easy in its care.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.9
Category: The Daily Stoic
My wife bought me this book by Ryan Holiday for Christmas 2021. These are the daily quotes by the famous stoic philosophers along with my thoughts should the quotes spark any.
Clarity: January 30, 2022
“If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters–don’t wish to seem knowledgeable. And if some regard you as important, distrust yourself.” Epictetus, Enchiridion, 13a The older I get, the more I am hit by the reality that I don’t know almost everything. At least if I’m using standard…
Clarity: January 29, 2022
“At every moment keep a sturdy mind on the task at hand, as a Roman and human being, doing it with strict and simple dignity, affection, freedom, and justice–giving yourself a break from all other considerations. You can do this if you approach each task as if it is your last, giving up every distraction,…
Clarity: January 28, 2022
“Take a good hard look at people’s ruling principle, especially of the wise, what they run away from what they seek out.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.38 I would add that you should look equally closely at the wicked disguised as wise for their ruling principle(s). Watch how they run and how they seek.
Clarity: January 27, 2022
“There are three areas in which the person who would be wise and good must be trained. The first has to do with desires and aversions–that a person may never miss the mark in desires nor fall into what repels them. The second has to do with impulses to act and not to act–and more…
Clarity: January 26, 2022
“Erase the false impressions from your mind by constantly saying to yourself, I have it in my soul to keep out any evil, desire or any kind of disturbance–instead, seeing the true nature of things, I will give them only their due. Always remember this power that nature gave you.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.29 “Serenity…
Clarity: January 25, 2022
“What’s left to prized? This, I think–to limit our action or inaction to only what’s in keeping with the needs of our own preparation… it’s what the exertions of education and teaching are all about–here is the thing to be prized! If you hold this firmly, you’ll stop trying to get yourself all the other…
Clarity: January 24, 2022
“From Rusticus… I learned to read carefully and not be satisfied with a rough understanding of the whole, and not to agree too quickly with those who have a lot to say about something.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 1.7.3 This is one of those points I feel I became comfortable with WAY too late in life….
Clarity: January 23, 2022
“Let’s pass over to the really rich–how often the occasions they look just like the poor! When they travel abroad they must restrict their baggage, and when haste is necessary, they dismiss their entourage. And those who are in the army, how few of their possessions they get to keep…” Seneca, On Consolation to Helvia,…
Clarity: January 22, 2022
“I will keep constant watch over myself and–most usefully–will put each day up for review. For this is what makes us evil–that none of us looks back upon our own lives. We reflect upon only that which we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future descend from the past.” Seneca, Moral…