More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
November 4 - December 4, 2020
As a Stoic student, you learn that only you can ruin your life and only you can refuse to let your inner self be conquered by whatever nasty challenge life throws at you.
“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best of yourself?” You’re no longer a child but a full-grown person, and yet you procrastinate,
“If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it.”
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
They saw themselves as veritable warriors of the mind and thought the primary reason to study philosophy was to put it into practice.
eudaimonia is a happy and smoothly flowing life that comes from thriving at bringing our moment-to-moment actions into harmony with our highest self.
Philosophy trains us to be able to take on every obstacle in life with the right mindset so that life keeps on going smoothly.
“To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.”
Stoicism has nothing to do with suppressing or hiding one’s emotions or being emotionless. Rather, it’s about acknowledging our emotions, reflecting on what causes them, and learning to redirect them for our own good. In other words, it’s more about unslaving ourselves from negative emotions, more like taming rather than getting rid of them.
The Stoics do care for their loved ones and fellow citizens; they just tame their emotions so they won’t get irrationally overwhelmed by them.
“A brave man isn’t someone who doesn’t experience any trace of fear whatsoever but someone who acts courageously despite feeling anxiety.”
What’s tranquility anyway? Seneca talks about the power of euthymia in his classic letters. He tells us that euthymia, which gets translated as tranquility, is all about knowing your path and walking that path. It’s the feeling we get when we truly and utterly trust ourselves. You’re confident that what you’re doing is right, and you don’t need to listen left and right for what others have to say. You don’t need to second guess and compare yourself to others all the time. You trust in what you’re doing because you’re trying your best, and you’re living accordingly to your values and know it’s
...more
It’s the calm confidence you feel when you’re living your authentic self in integrity with your highest values.
“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
“A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.”
It’s in our nature to do good to others, and we should do it for its own sake.
Our actions must benefit the common welfare, or they won’t benefit ourselves. We’re like a massive organism: all depending on one another.
Benefiting others is a form of virtue, and it ultimately benefits ourselves as virtue is its own reward.
there are things which are up to us and things which aren’t; we should always “make the best use of what is in our power, and take the rest as it happens.”
High influence: Our choices in judgments and actions Partial influence: Health, wealth, relationships, and outcomes of our behaviors No influence: Weather, ethnicity, and most external circumstances
It’s only if you know you haven’t done everything in your power that you will feel insecure and must justify yourself. That’s the dark gap between what you’re actually doing and what you’re capable of doing,
Events can give us physical pain, but suffering and inner disturbance only come from resisting what is, from fighting with reality.
things are as they are because that’s how it’s meant to be. Our emotional pain emanates from confusing the things which are up to us and those that aren’t. Fighting with reality, fighting with the things we cannot change, will leave us disturbed, angry at the world, blaming others, resenting life, and hating the gods.
“Seek not for events to happen as you wish but rather wish for events to happen as they do and your life will go smoothly.”
Events do not happen as they do regardless of your actions, but rather depending on your actions. With your voluntary actions, you can co-direct the outcomes. It matters greatly how hard you train and try to hit the target, it’s just not entirely up to you whether you hit or miss.
Our human nature is not only rational but also social and, therefore, we’re naturally attracted to other people. And a good person always shows love, kindness, justice, and concern for his fellow human beings—for his brothers, neighbors, and strangers alike. Having wise and good friends is the most precious external thing in the world.
not even love should be traded if the price is the compromising of your character. So go ahead and seek friendship, as long as it doesn’t need you to break with virtue.
The good person will always pursue virtue and avoid vice at all costs.
“If you want anything good, you must get it from yourself.”
We cannot change the things that happen in the world around us, we can only change the way we look at those things and what we choose to make out of them.
“There are three things in your composition: body, breath, and mind,” Marcus Aurelius reminds himself.
Only the mind is truly yours. Only the mind is within the Stoic circle of control. All else is not or only partially within our control.
“The majority of ordinary people lack fulfillment and peace of mind because their values are confused and internally conflicted. We waste our lives chasing after an illusion of Happiness, based on a mixture of hedonism, materialism and egotism—crazy, self-defeating values absorbed from the foolish world around us.”
If we resist reality, if we think things are going against us, if we fight with what is, then we will suffer. Therefore, we should not wish for reality to be different, but accept it as it is.
“Thy will be done.” And it doesn’t matter whether we call it God, Nature, Fortune, or Fate—but we must acknowledge that there’s something bigger than us, and that we don’t control everything that happens around us.
It’s much smarter to accept reality and focus on where our power lies.
Don’t fight with reality, but bring your will into harmony with it, and focus on where your power lies.
What happens to us is nature’s treatment to become better people. Those things happen for us, not against us, even if it doesn’t seem so.
“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.” Marcus Aurelius says that your judgment makes an event into an obstacle or an opportunity. It’s up to you.
Keep in mind that you are lucky to be able to enjoy the things you have, and that your enjoyment might end abruptly, and that you might never be able to enjoy those things again. Learn to enjoy stuff and people without feeling entitled to them, without clinging.
Life is now and you want to make the best of it by expressing your highest self in every moment.
“Fortune falls heavily on those for whom she’s unexpected. The one always on the lookout easily endures.”
Marcus Aurelius proposes to remind yourself in the morning “of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
“Mortal have you been born, to mortals you have given birth. Reckon on everything, expect everything.”
A good man, he says, is glad to receive advice, while a poor man resents any guidance.
Good: What did I do well today? Better: How could I improve? What could I do better? Best: What do I need to do if I want to be the best version of myself? Attention: Always stay kind and forgiving to yourself. Show some self-compassion. You’re trying your best, that’s all you can do. And even if you don’t feel well, that’s normal, everybody struggles and experiences setbacks. Take this to heart: always be kind to yourself.
Epictetus says that if you fulfill your duties toward others, then you’re living in agreement with nature, which is the direct path to a happy and smoothly flowing life.
