Philosophy.
Courage - Temperance - Justice - Wisdom
This self-indulgent blog post will change every day/week/month/year whenever I remember to add to it. Like Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, this post is meant for me, like an online, commonplace book. I can read them no matter where I am as long as I have access.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
“You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.”
Epictetus
“Sit and pray your nose doesn’t run! Or, rather just wipe your nose and stop seeking a scapegoat.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. Book 8 - 21.
‘‘Turn it inside out and see what it is like—what it becomes like when old, sick, or prostituting itself. How short-lived the praiser and praised, the one who remembers and the remembered. Remembered in some corner of these parts, and even there not in the same way by all, or even by one. And the whole earth is but a mere speck.“
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. Book 5 - 12.
“Here’s a way to think about what the masses regard as being ‘good’ things. If you would first start by setting your mind upon things that are unquestionably good—wisdom, self-control, justice, courage—with this preconception you’ll no longer ba able to listen to the popular refrain that there are too many good things to experience in a lifetime.“
Epictetus, Discourses. 2.17.1
“Throw out your conceited opinions, for it is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditation's. Book 6 - 46.
“Just as the arena and the other spectacles weary you - you’ve seen them all before - and the repetition grates on your nerves. So too with life. The something, the same causes, on all sides. How much longer.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditation's. Book 6 - 47.
“The only thing that isn’t worthless; to live this life out truthfully and rightly, and be patient with those who don’t”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditation's. Book 6 - 52.
“You Don’t have to turn this into something. It doesn’t have to upset you. Things can’t shape out decisions by themselves.“
Marcus Aurelius, Meditation's. Book 6 - 53.
“Practice rurally healing what people say. Do your best to get inside their mind”.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditation's. Book 6 - 54.
“What injures the hive injures the bee.“
Marcus Aurelius, Meditation's. Book 5 - 17.
“Chasing what can’t be done is madness. But the base person is unable to do anything else.“
Epictetus.
“If you want to be beautiful, make beautiful choices.“
Seneca.
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality”
Marcus Aurelius.
“It never ceases to amaze me. We love ourselves more than other people but we care more about their opinions than our own.”
Marcus Aurelius.
“You have the right to not have an opinion about this, to think nothing about this.”
Epictetus.
“You have two ear and one mouth. Listen more than you say.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditation's. Book 7 - 1.
“Evil: The same old thing. No matter what happens, keep this in mind: it’s the same old thing, from one end of the world to the other. It fills the history books, ancient and modern, and the cities, and the houses too. Nothing now at all. Familiar, transient.“
Marcus Aurelius, Meditation's. Book 7 - 2.
“You can not quench understanding unless you put out the insights that compose it. But you can rekindle those at will. Like glowing coals. I can control my thoughts as necessary; then how can I be troubled? What is outside my mind means nothing to it. Absorb that lesson and your feet stand firm. You can return to life. Look at a thing as you did before and life returns“
Marcus Aurelius, Meditation's. Book 7 - 3.
“Surrounded by all of this, we need to practice acceptance. Without disdain, but remembering that our own worth is measured by what we devote our energy to.“
Epictetus, Enchiridion, 23
“If you should ever turn your will to things outside your control in order to impress someone, be sure that you have wrecked your whole purpose in life. Be content, then, to be a philosopher in all that you do, and if you wish also to be seen as one, show yourself first that you are and you well succeed.”
Add your own in the comments if you feel so inclined.