Status Updates From المختصر

Si te cuentan que han hablado mal de ti, no te entretengas en justificarte, y responde solamente: "Ese tal no ha conocido mis demás defectos, porque entonces habría hablado mucho peor de mí."

XXIV: consider first what the matter is and what your own nature is able to bear... for different people are made for different things... You must watch, you must labor, you must get the better of certain appetites, must quit your acquaintances... You must be one man, either good or bad.

passage XXIV

XXII : "For remember that, if you are persistent, those very persons who at first ridiculed will afterwards admire you. But if you are conquered by them, you will incur a double ridicule."

V: When therefore, we are hindered, or disturbed or grieved, let us never impute it to others, but to ourselves, -that is, to our own views. It is the reaction of an uninstructed person to reproach others for his own misfortunes, of one entering upon instruction to reproach himself, and one perfectly, instructed to reproach neither others nor himself."

Apliquemos esta máxima a objetos más serios. Si alguno pierde la mujer o el hijo, no hay quien no le diga que esa es la suerte de la humanidad; pero si nosotros nos hallamos en el mismo caso, nos desesperamos y gritamos al instante: "Ah! cuan desgraciado soy!" Entonces es preciso acordarse de la sangre fría con que oímos que a otro le haya sucedido el mismo accidente.

Si yo puedo enriquecerme conservando el honor, la buena fe y la magnanimidad, consiento en ello: muéstrame el camino, y nada dejaré de hacer para conseguirlo; pero si me exigís que yo pierda mis verdaderos bienes para adquirir los falsos, reflexionad cuán injustos y sin razón sois.
¿Qué queréis más, el dinero, o un amigo fiel y honrado? Ayudadme más bien a conservar estas virtudes…

“quería también conservar mi libertad y mi carácter; y no los conservaré si no sé sufrir con paciencia las insolencias que aquí se cometen."

perfect for understanding how we should self-reflect to become better version of ourselves to live properly

15

Anything to meet my reading goal babes

Uhhhhh

Lehren 17 - 28.

19. (...) Du willst doch nicht Feldherr, nicht Magistrat, nicht Konsul sein, sondern frei.
23. (...) Und willst du es auch jemand scheinen, so scheine es dir selbst, das ist genug.
28. Wenn man dem ersten besten Gewalt über deinen Leib gäbe, das würde dich entrüsten. Scheust du dich denn nicht, jedem beliebigen, der dir begegnet, Gewalt über dein Gemüt zu geben, (...)

Seite 8, Lehre 12
fast an meiner Spucke verschluckt :DD
Epiktet du oller deadbeat ( I jest... unless..) :

"So beseitige in dir folgende unrichtige Gedanken: (.....) >>wenn ich meinen Sohn nicht strafe, so wird er ein Bösewicht werden.<< Besser ist es, ohne Furcht und Kummer sterben, als mit unruhigem Gemüt in allem Überflusse leben; BESSER, DASS DER JUNGE EIN BÖSEWICHT WERDE, ALS DASS DU UNGLÜCKLICH SEIEST."

gelesen: Erster Teil 10-17

11) Solange "er" es dir zum Besitz überlassen hat, besitze es als fremdes Gut.
14) Wer frei sein will, muss nichts begehren und nichts fürchten, was in eines andern Macht steht; andernfalls ist er dessen Knecht.
15) Bedenke das: du musst dich im Leben wie bei einem Gastmahle verhalten.
16) >>Nicht dieser Unfall beschwert ihn, sondern die Vorstellung, die er davon hat.<<

It’s very nice so far, a bit difficult vocabulary.

gelesen: Erster Teil 1-9

1) Gehört es zu den nicht in unserer Macht stehenden Dingen, so halte dies Wort bereit: >>Es berührt mich nicht.<<
3) Siehst du einen Krug, so sage dir, dass du einen Krug siehst; dann wirst du nicht in Unruhe geraten, wenn er bricht.
5) So ist der Tod an und für sich nichts Schreckliches(...), vielmehr ist die vorgefaßte Meinung von ihm, dass er etwas Schreckliches sei, das Schreckhafte.

if a book written in the first century in rome doesn't heal me, i'm afraid nothing will do it

In der Bücherei gesehen und direkt mal gelesen. Die stoische Philosophie ist interessant; ich hab aber keine große Meinung zu dem Buch.

Greek philosopher- read through chapter 26

Good people are NOT invincible, Epictetus, and it is folly to suggest that they are.

Also, that statement contradicts many of the statements you've made previously about accepting what you can't control and accepting that the world is not as you wish.

Also, all the vague appeals to nature without defining what that is are really starting to irk me.

He cautions against fallacious thinking, yet the appeal to nature is itself a fallacy.

I'm impressed that Epictetus can understand that women feel pressured to be pretty and even goes into the why of it.

However, his "inner beauty is what matters" platitude isn't really enough. I feel he ought to think more and more about sexism before he opens his mouth about it.

Also, in one instance he says "care for your body", but also that the mind is more important than the body.

Because romantic love is a key ingredient in the success of most, if not all marriages and committed relationships.

And yet many a-romantic people are not necessarily asexual. They have carnal desires, if not romantic ones, and it is unfair to deny a-romantic people sexual pleasures just because they aren't served well by marriage & committed relationships.

I personally am not a fan of casual sex myself, but I feel that casually instructing others not to, as Epictetus does here (even as ironically, he says not to try and discourage others from it!) is very, very small-minded.

For example: there are plenty of a-romantic people who would not be served well by things like marriage + long-term relationships.

And again, what if your family/community/country's customs are actively amoral and go against virtue.

Like, for example: slavery, segregation, religious intolerance, denying women's rights...

Again, more contradictions.

"fix your resolve on expecting justice and goodness and order" and "don't demand or expect that events happen as you would wish them to"

Huge contradiction. You can't both expect things to be good and just while at the same NOT trying to expect things to go as you wish.

Unless you're actively wishing for bad things to happen, I guess.

"Don't consent to be hurt and you won't" that's bullshit.

"you have obligations to your father even if he is an objectively terrible person" is TERRIBLE advice.

Also, this philosophy is very contradictory. Only now it does it acknowledge that humans are part of a community and have obligations. But before, it was very hyper-individualistic and detached.

Plus, it makes the path of wisdom sound very culty.

Arguably, our actions ARE responsible for what people think of us. It's only true that we can't control what others think to an EXTENT.

If you behave badly, people will find out and think of you accordingly. (Sensible people, that is).

Of course, obsessing over your reputation is bad, but you aren't completely helpless as to how it forms.