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February 11 - February 11, 2020
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be; just be one.4
It feels pointless to lament over something inevitable and beyond anyone’s control.
people should train themselves to acquire wisdom and virtue through self-discipline.
Living in agreement with Nature, in part, means fulfilling our natural potential for wisdom; that’s what it means for us to flourish as human beings.
Humans excel when they think clearly and reason well about their lives, which amounts to living wisely.
Some pains have the potential to make us stronger,
Responding calmly and with courage is more important.
What matters, in other words, isn’t what we feel but how we respond to those feelings.
If you stick with the facts and don’t unnecessarily extrapolate from them, you will put paid to many anxieties in life.
As an aspiring Stoic, you should begin by practicing deliberately describing events more objectively and in less emotional terms. Epictetus tells his students that if they can avoid being swept along with false and upsetting impressions, they will remain grounded in the objective representations they initially perceived.31
The Stoics liked to ask themselves, “What virtues has Nature given me that might help me deal with the situation better?”
we should give everyone we meet permission to tell us what our faults are, according to Galen, and resolve not to be angry with any of them.
Even if you don’t have a real-life mentor following you around, you can still benefit from the concept by using your imagination.
Sometimes it’s necessary to interrupt the things you’re doing out of habit so that you can ask yourself whether they’re actually healthy or unhealthy for you in the long run.
Reflecting upon and clarifying your core values can help combat depression and other emotional problems, especially once you make a consistent effort to live more in accord with your truest values each day.
Chasing empty, transient pleasures can never lead to true happiness in the long run.
We are the ones who choose to assign value to things that look appealing.
Everyday tolerance of minor physical discomforts can help us build lasting psychological resilience,
When we focus our attention on the reality of the here and now it becomes easier to conquer.
The paradox of accepting discomfort is that it often leads to less suffering.
For the Stoics, pain is “indifferent” and not bad. It’s therefore accepted as a natural process.
The obstacle standing in the way becomes the way.
The worried mind is always getting too far ahead of itself; it is always in suspense over the future. The Stoic Sage, by contrast, is grounded in the here and now.
Premeditation of adversity can be useful in confronting anger and other negative emotions, but its techniques are particularly suited to treat fear and anxiety.
true inner peace comes from the nature of our thoughts rather than pleasant natural surroundings.
Being a Stoic clearly doesn’t mean being a passive doormat. However, the wise man will not get upset about things that lie beyond his direct control, such as other people’s actions.
The Stoics probably learned the ancient concept of postponing their actions until anger has abated from the Pythagoreans, whose school was nearly seven centuries old by Marcus’s time. They were known for never speaking in anger but withdrawing for a while until their feelings had died down. They would only give their response when they could do so calmly and rationally. Today therapists sometimes call that taking a “time-out” from anger in order to regain your composure.
we should be prepared to meet many foolish and vicious people in life and to accept this as inevitable.
whenever you believe someone has wronged you, you should first consider what underlying opinions they hold about what’s right and wrong.
When we remember that nothing lasts forever, it no longer seems worthwhile getting angry with other people.
Other people can harm your property or even your body, but they can’t harm your character unless you allow them to do so.
The wise man accepts his pain, endures it, but does not add to it.
When we cut our ties to the past and the future and center ourselves in the present moment, we set our soul free from external things, leaving it to invest itself wholly in fulfilling its own nature.
