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Kindle Notes & Highlights
Study, yes, but go live your life as well. It’s the only way that you’ll actually understand what any of it means.
it’s only from your actions and choices over time that it will be possible to see whether you took any of the teachings to heart.
The good things in life cost what they cost. The unnecessary things are not worth it at any price. The key is being aware of the difference.
Is there anything sadder than the immense lengths we’ll go to impress someone? The things we’ll do to earn someone’s approval can seem, when examined in retrospect, like the result of some temporary form of insanity.
the people whose opinion we covet are not all that great. They’re flawed—they’re distracted and wowed by all sorts of silly things themselves.
When we experience success, we must make sure that it doesn’t change us—that we continue to maintain our character despite the temptation not to.
if there is one core teaching at the heart of this philosophy, it’s that we’re not as smart and as wise as we’d like to think we are. If we ever do want to become wise, it comes from the questioning and from humility—not,
Our senses are wrong all the time! As animals subjected to the slow force of evolution, we have developed all sorts of heuristics, biases, and emotional responses that might have worked well on the savannah but are totally counterproductive in today’s world.
The observing eye sees what is. The perceiving eye sees what things supposedly mean.
An event is inanimate. It’s objective. It simply is what it is. That’s what our observing eye sees.
Everything we do has a toll attached to it. Waiting around is a tax on traveling. Rumors and gossip are the taxes that come from acquiring a public persona. Disagreements and occasional frustration are taxes placed on even the happiest of relationships.
Theft is a tax on abundance and having things that other people want. Stress and problems are tariffs that come attached to success.
We’re constantly looking at the world around us and putting our opinion on top of it. And our opinion is often shaped by dogma (religious or cultural), entitlements, expectations, and in some cases, ignorance.
No wonder we feel upset and angry so often! But what if we let these opinions go?
the “good” that the Stoics advocate is simpler and more straightforward: wisdom, self-control, justice, courage.
attention is a habit, and that letting your attention slip and wander builds bad habits and enables mistakes.
Stoics use an almost cynical language as a way to dismantle some of the fanciest or most coveted parts of life.
We can apply this same way of thinking to a lot of things that people prize.
This exercise won’t turn you into a cynic. But it will provide some much-needed objectivity.
No one should be ashamed at changing his mind—that’s what the mind is for.
Remember: you’re a free agent. When someone points out a legitimate flaw in your belief or in your actions, they’re not criticizing you. They’re presenting a better alternative. Accept it!
Character is a powerful defense in a world that would love to be able to seduce you, buy you, tempt you, and change you.
Is it really that impressive to spend, spend, spend? Given the funds, who wouldn’t be able to do that?
Young friend, if you wish to be beautiful, then work diligently at human excellence.
You have only twenty-four hours with which to take it. And then it is gone and lost forever.
“that your ancestors set up those trophies, not that you may gaze at them in wonder, but that you may also imitate the virtues of the men who set them up.”
Don’t just admire them. Use them. Follow their example.
Most rudeness, meanness, and cruelty are a mask for deep-seated weakness. Kindness in these situations is only possible for people of great strength. You have that strength. Use it.
If your happiness is dependent on accomplishing certain goals, what happens if fate intervenes? What if you’re snubbed? If outside events interrupt? What if you do achieve everything but find that nobody is impressed?
That’s the problem with letting your happiness be determined by things you can’t control.
Our ambition should not be to win, then, but to play with our full effort.
Our intention is not to be thanked or recognized, but to help and to do what we think is right. Our focus is not on what happens to us but on how we respond. In this, we will always find contentment and resilience.
