Friday 23 September 2022

The place to do your work, to live the good life, is HERE

At this moment you aren't on a journey, but wandering about, being driven from place to place, even though what you seek -- to live well -- is found in all places. Is there any place more full of confusion than the Forum? Yet even there you can live at peace, if needed.

-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 28.5b-6a 

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Thursday 22 September 2022

Perfection, expect not! Don't seek it

That cucumber is bitter, so toss it out! There are thorns on the path, then keep away! Enough said. Why ponder the existence of nuisance? Such thinking would make you a laughing-stock to the true student of Nature, just as a carpenter or cobbler would laugh if you pointed out the sawdust and chips on the floors of their shops. Yet while those shopkeepers have dustbins for disposal, Nature has no need of them.

-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.50 

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Wednesday 21 September 2022

Joy, according to Stoics

Trust me, real joy is a serious thing. Do you think someone can, in the charming expression, blithely dismiss death with an easy disposition? Or swing open the door to poverty, keep pleasures in check, or meditate on the endurance of suffering? The one who is comfortable with thurning these thoughts over is truly full of joy, but hardly cheerful. It's exactly such a joy that I would wish for you to possess, for it will never run dry once you've laid claim to its source.

-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 23.4 

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Tuesday 20 September 2022

Check your privelege, for each has their own past

Some people are sharp and others are dull; some are raised in a better environment, others in worse, the latter, having inferior habits and nurture, will require more by way of proof and careful instruction to master these teachings and to be formed by them -- in the same way that bodies in a bad state must be given a great deal of care when perfect health is sought.

-- Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 1.1.33-1.3.1-3 

* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman