I am writing this on my tablet tonight and was having trouble trying to get quotes from Epictetus, so I decided to give you some quotes from my favorite amateur Stoic philosopher…me.
These are from the first 30 Daily Stoic posts.
Once you’ve made a decision, don’t second guess yourself.
Vacillating once a decision has been made is counter productive. Sometimes you have to change your mind, but indecisiveness helps nobody.
Choose what kind of person you want to be. Refuse to participate in things that go against that.
If you want to be a responsible person, going out and getting drunk all the time go against what you say you want. Act like the person you want to be.
Whatever the world throws at me, sometimes the only thing I have an option in is how do I respond.
All I control is my reactions and actions. As long as I keep a handle on myself, stressing out about the external problems is counter productive.
Always remember, if you’re struggling, it’s in your power to refocus and start again.
A small setback is not a reason to abandon the path that leads to where I want to be.
It is important to have self respect -not self esteem.
Self esteem is a meaningless feeling, but self respect is an earned feeling.
Never let fear hold you back. Especially fear of something that hasn’t or might not happen.
Worrying about the future is not a productive way to spend time.
I need to take care of myself, and not let my impulses keep me lazy.
Motivation is not important, discipline is.
I definitely prefer happiness to envy, and they do not work together.
Being happy with what I have is better than comparing myself to other people.
Mental strength is like physical strength, exercise makes it stronger.
The more I practice controlling my anger, the better I get at it.
I like to tell myself “nobody cares” when I feel like complaining, either to myself or at work.
Complaining is just making noise in a futile attempt for sympathy.
What is good is within my power to control, if I make proper choices. What is bad is also within my power to control, if I make poor choices. Indifferent doesn’t mean it has no effect on my life, just that I do not control them and should not worry about them. Easier said than done sometimes.
This is the Stoic philosophy, summed up in a few sentences.
What makes me so special that this thing which can happen to ANYONE, wouldn’t happen to me?
I am not a victim of the world, set up for special persecution, many people have had it much worse.
When I choose to be angry at things I can’t control, I am choosing to have a bad reaction.
There is no accidental anger, I have to choose to let it control me.
Following the Stoic philosophy has no impact on whether or not my life will go well.
Just because I try to be a good person, there is no guarantee of success.
It is not important if I impress other people with how my life appears. It is important that I am able to be happy with how my life is.
Looking at many young couples in the park today working hard for a perfect picture, I wonder if they are truly happy, or just want to make sure they look that way.
I screw up sometimes. It is important to recognize this and “be a person always stretching to avoid error”.
I am still far from perfect, but I am traveling the right direction.
When I choose to get upset, I am bringing a little evil into my life.
All my personal evil is self induced.
I can’t depend on being happy if I use other people or outside things to give me that feeling.
I won’t abandon the Stoic philosophy because I am having a rough week.
Life is simple to me. I try to be as honest as possible and treat others well.
It doesn’t matter who you learn from, it matters what you learn.
Trying to follow a plan too strictly can cause unnecessary stress when life alters things outside of my control.
I need to do what needs done, and nobody cares how I feel.
try to be a good person and do the “right” thing. It doesn’t matter if anyone sees it or knows about it.
if I know what the goal is it helps to keep me on track. If I had no goal, it would be easy to slowly lose focus on this.
Why did I start studying Stoicism? I needed a “cure for the self”. I have had anger issues for a while, but they were getting worse. I was also becoming lazy and not working out or running.
Kind of short this week, currently in Charleston for work.
Hope you all still got your money’s worth.
Well, I was going to say more stoicism is needed in the trans community as their rate of considering, attempting or succeeding suicide is %50 by sound counts, 20x that of non-tranny youth in other counts but that would be off-topic too early, or would it?
To make up for my last comment: “Choose what kind of person you want to be. Refuse to participate in things that go against that.”
No more sound advice than that. I try to live by it despite the difficulty of it. Follow it and you won’t be a very popular person but you also won’t have trouble with that pesky conscience thingy.
“Choose what kind of person you want to be. Refuse to participate in things that go against that.”
I like this one quite a lot. Thanks for the condensed wisdom this week, Ron.
Abnormal thinking
The most common adverse effects on the initial “dosing day” — or when patients were first given the drug — included hallucinations, euphoric mood, abnormal thinking, headache, dizziness and nausea, among others.
Look where normal thinking has landed us.
Euphoric mood is listed as an adverse effect for some reason.
This is when you know you’ve made it. When there’s enough content to do a clip show!
Joking aside, the weekly reminder is appreciated Ron.
Are you sure about that?
So small the difference between a wise man and a wise guy.
Everybody likes a little ass. Nobody likes a little smartass.
Master Shake himself seems to think so.
It doesn’t matter who you learn from, it matters what you learn.
I’ll steal a good idea from anybody.
Nice little refresher, thanks.
“to be nobody but yourself in a world that is fighting night and day to make you into someone else, is to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.”
– e. e. cummings
I still have his play on my shelf about Death and Santa Claus trading places.
Did it involve a $1 bet and futures of frozen concentrated orange juice?
It was a strange morality play where Death was selling futures in a thing called wheelmines, and Death started pretending to be Santa to sell the mines, and then Santa started pretending to be Death because everyone wanted to kick Santa’s butt because of the fake wheelmines. It was a heck of a head-scratcher. I probably left some pieces out or summarized slightly off, it was a surreal play.
You mean Hogfather?
(Also made into a passable BBC production)
No. ee cummings wrote this morality play in 1946.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus:_A_Morality
Hogfather is probably the better story. 🙂
It also deals with Death (not death) filling in for an expy of Santa Clause (named the Hogfather) while fighting off the auditors of reality.
Recently seen on the electronic sign of a local facility for adults with developmental disabilities: “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”
A fairly standard sign in comic book shops:
That is one fine list of good advise. Some already things I tell myself, others I will in the future.
Thank you.
Wife keeps telling me that I need to quit procrastinating. I keep telling her…I will, I am just waiting for the right time.
The best thing about procrastinating is that it pays of NOW!
Eat the fries first.
“Why did I start studying Stoicism? I needed a “cure for the self”. I have had anger issues for a while, but they were getting worse. I was also becoming lazy and not working out or running.”
All these things are related. Exercise can ease anger and depression. I am trying to do the same myself, so I resemble less an angry human dough ball.
Stop! I can only get so hard!
Nice wish list. I’d be happy if even 50% came true.
She has me convinced.
I don’t like the “increased immunity for law enforcement” part but other than that, I’d run on that platform. I have heard there is some shadowy group advising Trump on what to do on Day 1. Hopefully that’s true.
Well, if you have an erection that lasts over 4 hours…
https://nypost.com/2024/03/08/us-news/tearful-ronna-mcdaniel-hands-rnc-reins-over-to-lara-trump-michael-whatley-at-houston-coronation/
You might have read this. Ronna the incompetent boob is gone.
Lara Trump is now the RNC Chair? Wow – maybe it is his party now.
“The thing I worry about the most is something that we can control,” McDaniel said.
Ronna? Stoic?
Lara Trump has a bit of that botox look to he but still would.
What were you saying?
She looks like she would leave you face down in a ditch, and never think about you again.
I can work with that.
Avoids an awkward conversation.
“To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Wealth redistribution
Space company Astra will go private in a cut-rate deal with its founders after a dismal run as a publicly-traded stock.
Astra co-founders Chris Kemp and Adam London – CEO and CTO, respectively – signed an agreement with the company’s board to acquire all outstanding common stock at 50 cents a share. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.
——-
The company’s market value is about $13 million at current levels, a sliver of the $2.6 billion equity valuation it went public at via a SPAC three years ago.
The San Francisco-area company, incorporated in 2016, once aimed to mass produce small rockets and conduct launches as often as daily.
Since its stock debut, Astra’s rockets reached orbit twice – but the company also suffered three launch failures.
Once they get things patched up they can spin the wheel again.
It is important to have self respect -not self esteem.
Self esteem is a meaningless feeling, but self respect is an earned feeling.
YES
Complaining is just making noise in a futile attempt for sympathy.
It works for the usual suspects like government school teachers.
I guess I need a little more Stoicism after last night’s deliberative session.
Why isn’t the kids learning?
https://twitter.com/waprog/status/1765852317872775540
If you put it into a graph, it proves Donald Trump is just as authoritarian as Hitler. And clearly Hitler favored individual economic freedoms.
All of those labels are meaningless.
And he’s more authoritarian than Stalin.
Saudi Arabia build android, installs AI. Hijinx ensue.
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/saudi-arabia-male-robot-inappropriate-act-with-female-reporter-sparks-outrage-5194518
That made my day, thank you!
Once you’ve made a decision, don’t second guess yourself.
Not sure about that one. Of course there’s a difference between ‘second guessing’ and ‘re-evaluating’ I suppose. I think you should always be aware of where you decision is taking you and whether it was the correct one to get on the path you wanted, or even whether, as you progress on that path, was it really the right path.
When I choose to get upset, I am bringing a little evil into my life.
What does it mean to ‘choose to get upset’? Getting upset is a natural, evolutionary (I think) response to some stimulus. It’s what you do with that upset that matters and can bring evil into your life, not that you experience it.
And I missed my daily dose of tunes. So:
This weeks music, a poor substitute for Ron’s usual outline, comes from a little known doom band, Solitude Aeturnus.
Well if you want music links… I’d say this is a good fit.
I do like me some folksy music, though maybe a bit harder. Too Irish though – and you know what they say about the Irish…
Whut arrr peeple sayin about de Oirish? 👊 ☘️
“An Irishman is never drunk so long as he can hang onto one blade of grass and not fall off the face of the earth.”
(-.-) …Hic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo4JZFe5Dzs
alternate song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MnF6tonFY4
Dere’s na alcolics in Oireland!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2_8Igq7ko4
Why they are the finest of the finest citizens! And always alert and sober. And never in a fighting mood. Just the best people all around.
***
“Sturdy Irish lads and beautiful Irish lasses, brimful of Hibernian wit, are slaves to ether drunkenness. The mother may be seen with her daughters and maybe a neighboring Irishwoman or two at a friendly ether “bee.” The habit has become so general that small shopkeepers treat the children who have been sent to purchase some article, with a small dose of ether, and schoolmasters have detected ether on the breaths of children from 10 to 14 (or even younger) on their arrival at school.”
It is interesting to note that, even at the peak of the Irish ether-drinking craze, the possession, sale, and private use of ether remained legal. The first attempt to control the problem involved adulterating industrial ether with naphtha, which has an odor and taste even more offensive than ether itself. This was an utter failure-people just blended it with sugar and spices to mask the taste, held their noses, and tossed it back. Ether drinking in Ireland was finally curtailed in 1891 when the British government classified ether as a poison and enforced strict controls on its sale and possession, thus dramatically restricting its distribution and use. The practice lingered for a few years longer but appeared to be completely abolished by the 1920s.
***
***
“On Language & the Irish Nation” was the title of a radio address made by Éamon de Valera, then Taoiseach of Ireland, on Raidió Éireann on St. Patrick’s Day (17 March) 1943. It is often called The Ireland that we dreamed of,[1] a phrase which is used within it, or the “comely maidens” speech.[2] The speech marked the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge), a group promoting Irish culture and the Irish language. In the most frequently quoted passage of the speech, de Valera set out his vision of an ideal Ireland:
The ideal Ireland that we would have, the Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit – a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy [or comely; discussed later] maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age. The home, in short, of a people living the life that God desires that men should live. With the tidings that make such an Ireland possible, St. Patrick came to our ancestors fifteen hundred years ago promising happiness here no less than happiness hereafter. It was the pursuit of such an Ireland that later made our country worthy to be called the island of saints and scholars. It was the idea of such an Ireland – happy, vigorous, spiritual – that fired the imagination of our poets; that made successive generations of patriotic men give their lives to win religious and political liberty; and that will urge men in our own and future generations to die, if need be, so that these liberties may be preserved. One hundred years ago, the Young Irelanders, by holding up the vision of such an Ireland before the people, inspired and moved them spiritually as our people had hardly been moved since the Golden Age of Irish civilisation. Fifty years later, the founders of the Gaelic League similarly inspired and moved the people of their day. So, later, did the leaders of the Irish Volunteers. We of this time, if we have the will and active enthusiasm, have the opportunity to inspire and move our generation in like manner. We can do so by keeping this thought of a noble future for our country constantly before our eyes, ever seeking in action to bring that future into being, and ever remembering that it is for our nation as a whole that future must be sought.
***
Pretty much obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa3xU55dorU
Shamrock means 3-leaf in Irish. I don’t speak it that well, but I know some.
An Irish monolingual speaker tells a story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP4nXlKJx_4
<a href ="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ7Idz7BciA"Helping kids enjoy their Gaeilge lessons
Nice, but I like this song of theirs better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A6__HssHW8
City Journal discovers Marcus Aurelius: https://www.city-journal.org/article/a-manual-for-adversity
Counting the weeks until Stoic Friday LIX.
***
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods.”[4]
***
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5yYMjU8xDg
Death smiles at everyone; soldiers smile back.
That was an easy add to the gym playlist.
NYT headline about Republican response to SOTU:
“Katie Britt Attacks Biden”
Apparently, “personal attacks” on politicians are outrageous and impermissible breaches of proper etiquette and societal norms.
After all, Biden and the Democrat apparatchiks show only respect and deference to Former President Trump, with whom they may disagree but would never personally impugn.
Music for breaking the speed limit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7icoV1KdvmI