Anything that must yet be done, virtue can do with courage and promptness. For anyone would call it a sign of foolishness for one to undertake a task with a lazy and begrudging spirit, or to push the body in one direction and the mind in another, to be torn apart by wildly divergent impulses.
-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 31.b-32
Quality is b=much better than quantity...one home run is much better than two doubles. -- Steve Jobs
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don't have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.
-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 123.3
John D. Rockefeller, who was as rich as they come, believed that "a man's wealth must be determined by the relation of his desires and expenditures to his income. If he feels rich on $10 and has everything he desires, he really is rich."....Today, you could try to increase your wealth, or you could take a shortcut and just want less.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth, for then you won't tire and give up, if you aren't busying yourself with lesser things beyond what should be allowed.
-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.32b
"...don't spend your time (the most valuable and least renewable of all your resources) on the things that don't matter. What about the things that don't matter but you're absolutely obligated to do? Well, spend as little time and worry on them as possible....If you give things more time and energy than they deserve...then sadly, you've made the important things - your family, your health, your true commitments - less so as a result of what you've stolen from them."
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
It's ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of misery, engulfed by anxiety that the things it desires might remain its own until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest -- by longing for things to come it will lose the ability to enjoy present things.
-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 98.5b-6a
"The pragmatist, the person of action, is too busy to waste time on such silliness....let the news come when it does. Be too busy working to care."
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
It is said that if you would have peace of mind, busy yourself with little. But wouldn't a better saying be do what you must and as required of a rational being created for public life? For this brings not only the peace of mind of doing few things, but the greatest peace of doing them well. Since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquility. As a result, we shouldn't forget at each moment to ask, is this one of the unnecessary things? But we must corral not only unnecessary actions but unnecessary thoughts too, so needless acts don't tag along after them.
-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.24
"What vanity obligates us to do, what greed signs us up for, what ill discipline adds to our plate, what a lack of courage prevents us from saying no to - all of these we must cut, cut, cut"
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
A good person is invincible, for they don't rush into contests in which they aren't the strongest. If you want their property, take it -- take also their staff, profession, and body. But you will never compel what they set out for, nor trap them in what they would avoid. For the only contest the good person enters is that of their own reasoned choice. How can such a person not be invincible?
-- Epictetus, Discourses, 3.6.5-7
"Some people think that 'choosing your battles' is weak or calculating. How could reducing the amount of times we fail or minimizing the number of needless injuries inflicted upon us be weak? How is that a bad thing? As the saying goes, discretion is the better part of valor. The Stoics call it reasoned choice. That means be reasonable! Think hard before choosing, and make yourself unbeatable.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
For nothing outside my reasoned choice can hinder or harm it -- my reasoned choice calone can do this to itself. If we would lean this way whenever we fail, and would blame only ourselves and remember that nothing but opinion is the cause of a troubled mind an uneasiness, then by God, I swear we would be making progress.
-- Epictetus, Discourses, 3.19.2-3
"Start where you need to. Even one minute without playing the blame game is progress in the art of living."
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Just as the nature of rational things has given to each person their rational powers, so it also gives us this power -- just as nature turns to its own purpose any obstacle or any opposition, sets its place in the destined order, and co-opts it, so every rational person can convert any obstacle into the raw material for their own purpose.
-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.35
What things do you think have been holding you back that, in fact, can be a hidden source of strength?
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
This can be swiftly taught in very few words: virtue is the only good; there is no certain good without virtue; and virtue resides in our nobler part, which is the rational one. And what can this virtue be? True and steadfast judgment. For from this will arise every mental impulse, and by it every appearance that spurs our impulses will be rendered clear.
-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 71.32
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
We cry to God Almighty, how can we escape this agony? Fool, don't you have hands? Or could it be God forgot to give you a pair? Sit and pray your nose doesn't run! Or, rather just wipe your nose and stop seeking a scapegoat.
-- Epictetus, Discourses, 2.16.13
The world is unfair. The game is rigged. So-and-so has it out for you. Maybe these theories are true, but practically speaking -- for the right here and now -- what good are they to you? That government report or that sympathetic news article isn't going to pay the bills or rehab your broken leg or find that bridge loan you need. Succumbing to self-pity and "woe is me" narrative accomplishes nothing -- nothing except sapping you of the energy and motivation you need to do something about your problem.
We have a choice: Do we focus on the ways we have been wronged, or do we use what we've been given and get to work? Will we wait for someone to save us, or will we listen to Marcus Aurelius's empowering call to "get active in your own rescue -- if you care for yourself at all -- and do it while you can." That's better than just blowing your own nose (which is a step forward in itself).
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
