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Kindle Notes & Highlights
And as it happens, the Hebrew word for charity—tzedakah—means “justice.”
Kindness is a form of generosity we can always afford.
Of course, it would be wonderful if the world was naturally just, if people were automatically good, always doing the right thing. Sadly, they aren’t and they don’t. It’s one of the most heartbreaking and frustrating things about life.
The reality is complex and frustrating - assume that no one is practicing virtue in this world and act accordingly
The Stoics say we build a life, create change, action by action, step by step. “No one can stop you from that,” Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations.
“He is a dangerous and uncomfortable enemy because his body which you can always conquer gives you so little purchase of his soul.”
Inner strength is not visible on the outside
“Men say I am a saint losing myself in politics,” he once joked. “The fact is that I am politician trying my hardest to be a saint.”
Better to do right and go unrewarded than to do wrong and go unpunished.
Expect no reward - avoid the wrong purpose
That it didn’t come from a place of strength and generosity but of insecurity or thirst.
We can judge every action if it comes from the position of strength and generosity
Do it with a smile. Be the beautiful person who just goes through the world doing their job, doing good, never expecting or asking for anything.
Despair is a choice. Cynicism is an excuse. Neither create a better world.
Lens of misery and cynicism wont solve the problem. What has this to do with Justice- I wonder. Ryan has gone above and beyond the concept of Justice to connect several dots and create an oneness
Justice, like love, is not a victory march. It is a long, hard slog.
“When Wisdom has been profitless to me, and Philosophy barren, and the proverbs and phrases of those who have sought to give me consolation as dust and ashes in my mouth,”
“the memory of that little lowly act of Love has unsealed for me all the wells of pity, made the desert blossom like a rose, and brought me out of the bitterness of lonely exile into harmony with the wounded, broken, and great heart of the world.”
Perform an act of Kindness everyday
We should strive, Seneca once said, “to treat others as you wish the gods would treat you.” Which is to say: With compassion. With endless patience. With infinite understanding. With love and generosity.
Justices includes Love and generosity- otherwise it cant be delivered
Just as we must try to forgive those who trespass against us, we must make an active effort to seek forgiveness for the trespasses we have made. We can’t pretend it didn’t happen.
“A human being,” he wrote, “is a part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”
Your situations are not unique, it has multitude of similarities with others because we all are connected
That everything and everyone is far more connected than we are prone to think.
We share an animating force, an energy, a unity that no matter what happens or how different things seem is always there. Even in our suffering, in our grief, we are tapping into something eternal and vast, something that makes us realize we are very much not alone.
Realizing this, letting it wash over us, sitting in awe of it—it’s more than just humbling. It also makes us more generous, more courageous, more committed to what’s right.
Marcus Aurelius’s line that “what’s bad for the hive is bad for the bee”
Create inclusive society - perhaps this is the biggest exhibition of Justice
The parliament of Man, the federation of the world.
“what doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.” When we close ourselves off to love and hope, naturally we experience less love and hope.
What you seek is seeking you
Malcolm walked away from hatred and toward the light, toward love. He outgrew separatism and embraced the concepts of human rights and human unity.
Nietzsche said that those who fight monsters must see to it that they do not become one themselves.
Use it in Convo
We can keep going back, chipping away at a big problem.
Single-mindedness, busy-ness, ambition, and determination—they are quite a cocktail.
Adam Smith studied Stoicism and wrote in his book A Theory of Moral Sentiments about operating as though there is an impartial spectator on your shoulder, watching and judging the decisions that you make.
But we don’t do it for the recognition. We do it because if we don’t, who will?
it’s not a principle until it costs you money.
- use it in convo
I’ve always felt that the Stoics didn’t go far enough in connecting friendship and affection to the virtue of justice.
Love, affection, generosity - key ingredients in Justice - Ryan makes this conspicuous
In the end, you’re measured by how you treat the people closest to you.
Forgiveness, they say, is a gift you give yourself. My aim was to spare myself bitterness, paranoia, resentment, distraction, and guilt.
Forgiveness is what we call - having a big heart
I’m more convinced than ever that to choose this philosophy means accepting a certain responsibility. It means assuming a certain stewardship.
Ryan is a great Steward
