“Ask yourself the following first thing in the morning:” Epictetus, Discourses, 4.6.34-35 “What am I lacking in attaining freedom from passion? What for tranquility? What am I? A mere body, estate-holder, or reputation? None of these. What, then? A rational being. What then is demanded of me? Meditate on your actions. How did I steer…
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 20, 2022
“Your principles can’t be extinguished unless you snuff out the thoughts that feed them, for it’s continually in your power to reignite new ones….It’s possible to start living again! See things anew as you once did–that is how to restart life!” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.2 I recently overheard one of my younger coworkers very passionately…
Clarity: January 19, 2022
“A podium and a prison is each a place, one high and the other low, but in either place your freedom of choice can be maintained if you so wish.” Epictetus, Discourses, 2.6.25 I can’t remember the source, or whether it is a true story or not, but I recently heard a story of two…
Clarity: January 18, 2022
“Pass through this brief patch of time in harmony with nature, and come to your final resting place gracefully, just as a ripened olive might drop, praising the earth that nourished it and grateful to the tree that gave it growth.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.48.2 This is simple, elegant poetry…
Clarity: January 17, 2022
“I am your teacher and you are learning in my school. My aim is to bring you to completion, unhindered, free from compulsive behavior, unrestrained, without shame, free, flourishing, and happy, looking to God in things great and small–your aim is to learn and diligently practice all these things. Why then don’t you complete the…
Clarity: January 16, 2022
“So in the majority of other things, we address circumstances not in accordance with the right assumptions, but mostly by following wretched habit. Since all that I’ve said is the case, the person in training must seek to rise above, so as to stop seeking out pleasure and steering away from pain; to stop clinging…
Clarity: January 15, 2022
“Tranquility can’t be grasped except by those who have reached an unwavering and firm power of judgment–the rest constantly fall and rise in their decisions, wavering in a state of alternately rejecting and accepting things. What is the cause of this back and forth? It’s because nothing is clear and they rely on the most…
Clarity: January 14, 2022
“Understand at last that you have something in you more powerful and divine than what causes the bodily passions and pulls you like a mere puppet. What thoughts now occupy my mind? Is it not fear, suspicion, desire, or something like that?” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.19 Far too many people fail to understand this point….
Clarity: January 13, 2022
“We control our reasoned choice and all acts that depend on that moral will. What’s not under our control are the body and any of its parts, our possessions, parents, siblings, children, or country–anything with which we might associate.” Epictetus, Discourses, 1.22.10 I think some of the choices we make, especially those involving “the body…
Clarity: January 12, 2022
“Keep this thought at the ready at daybreak, and through the day and night–there is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all outside of your sphere of choice, regarding nothing else as your possession, surrendering all else to God and Fortune.” Epictetus, Discourses, 4.4.39 This is a nice meditative quote…