“We must learn to strengthen self-restraint, curb luxury, temper ambition, moderate anger, view poverty calmly, cultivate frugality, use readily available remedies for natural desires, keep restive aspirations and a mind intent upon the future under lock and key, and make it our business to get our riches from ourselves rather than from Fortune.”
“We are all chained to Fortune. All life is bondage. Man must therefore habituate himself to his condition, complain of it as little as possible, and grasp whatever good lies within his reach. No situation is so harsh that a dispassionate mind cannot find some consolation in it... Apply good sense to your problems; the hard can be softened, the narrow widened, and the heavy made lighter by the skillful bearer. Our desires, moreover, must not be set wandering far afield; since they cannot be wholly confined, we may give them an airing in the immediate vicinity. What cannot be or can hardly be we should leave alone, and follow what is near at hand and in reach of hope, but in the knowledge that all alike are trivial.”
---- Seneca
“Don't hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.”
“For every challenge, remember the resources you have within you to cope with it. Provoked by the sight of a beautiful woman, you will discover within you the contrary power of self-restraint. Faced with pain, you will discover the power of endurance. If you are insulted, you will discover patience. In time, you will grow to be confident that there is not a single impression that you will not have the moral means to tolerate.”
----- Epictetus
“'Poor me, because this happened to me.' No, say rather, 'Lucky me, because though this happened to me I'm still happy, neither broken by present circumstance nor afraid for the future.' Because the same thing could have happened to anyone, but not everyone could have remained content. So why is the former a misfortune any more than the latter is a blessing? Do you actually call anything a human misfortune that isn't a perversion of human nature? And don't you think a perversion of human nature must run counter to nature's will? Well, you understand its will. So does this misfortune prevent you in any way from being just, generous, sober, reasonable, careful, free from error, courteous, free, etc. - all of which together make human nature complete? Remember from now on whenever something tends to make you unhappy, draw on this principle: 'This is no misfortune; but bearing with it bravely is a blessing.'”
---- Marcus Aurelius
“Don't get attached to them and they won't be. Don't tell yourself that they're indispensable and they aren't. Those are the reflections you should recur to morning and night. Start with things are least valuable and most liable to be lost – things such as a jug or a glass – and proceed to apply the same ideas to clothes, pets, livestock, property; then to yourself, your body, the body's parts, your children, your siblings and your wife. Look on every side and mentally discard them. Purify your thoughts, in case of an attachment or devotion to something that doesn't belong to you and will hurt to have wrenched away. And as you exercise daily, do not say that you are philosophizing, but that you are a slave presenting your emancipator; because this is the genuine freedom that you cultivate.”
---- Epictetus
But all of this feels like bullshit to me. Just another impossible collection of pithy sayings. I'm no stoic. Diogenes would mock me with all the rest. How about some truth then? That at least might honor our philosophers. I am a liar and a thief and a coward. I'm weak and let my emotions overpower my resolve. I retreat in the face of difficulty or even more pathetically beg for absolution. I comfort no one, while I demand all that others have to give. I'm a hypocrite. A drunk. I follow my nature, and it is so very ugly.
I'm not sure that he is entirely right, but Baudelaire does have one pretty funny observation on the matter: “Stoicism is a religion with only one sacrament, suicide.”
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2 comments:
Whenever I find myself suffering through a dichotomous mind battle such as this one, the argument that gets me through the night is "What does it matter?" It doesn't really change your life much if you agree with either side. Tomorrow you are going to wake up with the same problems you have today. You're also going to wake up tomorrow with the good things you have that we all look over on a day to day basis. If I was more of a super nerd I would look up that quote by Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back that talks of Luke never living in the moment. "... never with his mind on where he was," or something like that. Instead I'll use another favorite, from Winston Churchill:
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
All in all I hate leaving these as messages. I can't wait to come down there and talk to you like a real person.
Come to Oregon. Embrace the beauty that is nature. Watch sunrises and sunsets with me up on mountains. Things will make more sense...
Andy
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