More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Virtue” can seem old-fashioned. In fact, virtue—arete—translates to something very simple and very timeless: Excellence. Moral. Physical. Mental.
Religion is essentially virtue at the core of with added layers of social rules which might have made it less appealing to someone like me. But regardless, religion is timeless
“Justice means much more than the sort of thing that goes on in law courts,” C. S. Lewis would remind listeners in a famous lecture series. “It is the old name for everything we should now call ‘fairness’; it includes honesty, give and take, truthfulness, keeping promises, and all that side of life.”
This is why Justice is “the right thing to do” - there no word for it. But this American expression captures it the best way
As if these moral choices are clear and easy, or as if they are one-offs instead of ever present. As if we are the ones asking the question, instead of life asking them of us.
No one admires selfishness. In the end, we despise evil and greed and indifference.
The aim in this book is much simpler, much more practical—following in the tradition of the ancients who saw justice as a habit or a craft, a way of living.
The virtue of a person is measured not by his outstanding efforts but by his everyday behavior.
“If it’s not right, do not do it,” Truman underlined in his well-worn copy of Meditations, “if it is not true, do not say it….
“Always do right!” it read, quoting Mark Twain. “This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
We keep our word to ourselves—that’s discipline. We keep our word to others because it’s justice.
Or as the Bible put it, evil hates the light.
How we treat people in ordinary circumstances is one thing. How we treat them when we’re tired, when we’re stressed, when the weight of the world is on our shoulders…when someone has just screwed up, just cost us something serious. This says so much.
“People talk of the courage of convictions, but in actual life a man’s duty to his family may make a rigid course seem a selfish indulgence of his own righteousness.”
Integrity is living by what you think is right. Not what you can get away with, not what everyone else is doing.
A small group of committed individuals can in fact change the world, and they don’t have to burn anything or anyone down in the process.
When you’re suffering in your own life, it’s hard to muster the empathy to see someone else’s—especially if you or your choices have played any part in it.
but that a statesman “must know when to dissemble, when to be frank…. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness and cunning. But all those things will be forgiven of him—indeed they will be regarded as high qualities—if he can make them the means to achieve great ends.”
Machiavelli wasn’t the bad guy that idealists make him out to be. He was as principled as they come—in fact, he was brutally tortured for his role in attempt to keep his country free.
Supporting robert greens ideas - Ryan has started promoting Robert greens power books more than before. This development might be related to him realizing the reality of navigating through a complex world
Politics, building things, making things happen—it’s dirty, dusty business. We cannot wait for perfect men, nor can we pretend to be pure ourselves. Doing good in this world is not going to be easy. It will not be without its opponents or obstacles. We can call them names. We can despair. We can blame.
Stop looking for angels. Start looking for angles.
What counts is whether this effort is actually alleviating that suffering, not temporarily but permanently.
Until then we have to be smart and capable and competent.
Generosity is something we admire. It’s something many of us wish we could be better at.