2000 Year Old Stoic Rules For Life

there is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about the things which are beyond the power of our will if you were distressed by anything external the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your estimate of it and this you have the power to revoke at any moment the greatest obstacle to living is expectancy which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today you are arranging what lies in fortunes control and abandoning what lies in yours what are you looking at to what goal are you straining the whole future lies in uncertainty live immediately men are disturbed not by things but by the views which they take of things thus death is nothing terrible else it would have appeared so to socrates but the terror consists in our notion of death that it is terrible 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 action of an uninstructed person to reproach others for his own misfortunes of one entering upon instruction to reproach himself and of one perfectly instructed to approach neither others or himself they lose the day in expectation of the night and the night in fear of the dawn he is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not but rejoices for those which he has live a good life if there are gods and they are just then they will not care how devout you have been but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by if there are gods but unjust then you should not want to worship them if there are no gods then you will be gone but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones if you really want to escape the things that harass you what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person true happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependence upon the future not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have which is sufficient for he that is so wants nothing the greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach a wise man is content with his lot whatever it may be without wishing for what he has not for what prevents us from saying that the happy life is to have a mind that is free lofty fearless and steadfast a mind that is placed beyond the reach of fear beyond the reach of desire that counts virtue the only good baseness the only evil and all else but a worthless mass of things which come and go without increasing or diminishing the highest good and neither subtracting any part from the happy life nor add any part to it a man thus grounded must whether he wills or not necessarily be attended by constant cheerfulness and a joy that is deep in issues from deep within since he finds delight in his own resources and desires no joys greater than his inner joys when someone wrongs you ask yourself what made him do it once you understand his concept of good and evil you feel sorry for him and cease to either be amazed or hungry if his concept is similar to yours then you will be bound to forgive him since you would have acted as he did in similar circumstances but if you do not share his ideas of good and evil then you should find it easier to overlook the wrongs of someone who is confused and in a moral model wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants don't explain your philosophy embody it first say to yourself what you would be and then do what you have to do any person capable of angering you becomes your master he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him circumstances don't make the man they only reveal him to himself don't seek to have events happen as you wish but wish them to happen as they do happen and all will be well with you god has entrusted me with myself no man is free who is not master of himself a man should live so that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake but for the sake of having done right if you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor if you live according to what others think you will never be rich all cruelty springs from weakness nothing to my way of thinking is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company [Music] a gift consists not in what is done or given but in the intention of the giver or doer you act like mortals in all that you fear and like immortals in all that you desire if a man knows not to which port he sails no wind is favorable you live as if you were destined to live forever no thought of your frailty ever enters your head of how much time has already gone by you take no heed you squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts how much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or but only at what he does himself to make it just and holy begin each day by telling yourself i shall be met with interference ingratitude insolence disloyalty ill-will and selfishness all of them due to the offenders ignorance of what is good or evil but for my part i have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility the nature of evil and its meanness and also the nature of the culprit himself who is my brother not in the physical sense but as a fellow creature similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine therefore none of those things can injure me for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading neither can i be angry with my brother or fall foul of him for he and i were born to work together like a man's two hands feet or eyelids or the upper and lower rows of his teeth to obstruct each other is against nature's law and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction if anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer he was ignorant of my other faults else he would not have mentioned these alone it seems to often do more harm than good to live in resentment and disdain for the world around us the world we find ourselves in its past and present its people and the rise and fall of its cultures and practices are all the way they are they are not the way we personally want them to be [Music] when we resist the reality of the world around us and instead project onto it our expectation about how the world should be we are often met with a certain level of internal resistance resistance that can cause us to suffer and the greater the distance between reality in our expectation the greater the resistance the world is what it is it is not what we expect it to be learn to accept life learn to love fate and all that it brings this is the stoic principle of amor fatty to love fate after all fate has given us the ability to live and to experience life unfortunately amor fati often gets confused with a passive defeatist acceptance of the world around us to accept the wrongs of the world and to lie down as we observe the passing of things we don't agree with or the wrong doing we see being committed but i believe this is a misunderstanding of the stoic principle acceptance of reality does not mean to submit to it it is simply learning the ability to see it objectively and accepting that in this moment that is the state of the world it is the ability to look at the things around us clearly not through the lens of our own bias and expectations in doing so we are better able to understand the situations around us the reality of the situations we find ourselves in unblinded by the lens of our own bias and expectations we then are able to more clearly understand what is within our control and what is not and then look to leverage that control to affect change first in ourselves and then if possible in the world around us for the better whenever you feel anger towards a person think of what led them to behave in such a way it is all too easy for us to pass judgment from our own perspective but it is a very different thing to try and put yourself in the shoes of the wrongdoer and try to understand what hardship they have gone through what burden they might carry or how life has treated them leading up to the moment which you found so offensive most people are trying to do the best they can with what they have and while we all are responsible for our actions there is often a line to draw between a person's experience and their behavior to me one of the great ironies of life is a man's desire to find comfort to remove all sources of hardship and suffering in favor of comfort when applied to our core needs like food shelter security and companionship comfort and stability to me do make sense but when it exceeds to every corner of our lives comfort and the removal of all hardship seems to me to bring with it its own brand of hardship instead of putting ourselves into the unknown expanding our comfort zone and learning to deal with the adversity that comes with it excessive comfort seems to risk the opposite it erodes our resilience to hardship can breed purposelessness apathy sloth and the host of limitations that come with a shrinking comfort circle it seems to me that one of the lesser thought of challenges of modern life is to balance the comfort that comes when our base needs a met with the voluntary hardship that is needed to make sure that comfort doesn't soften our resolve the ancient stoix advocated voluntary hardship marcus aurelius chose to sleep on an uncomfortable bed seneca chose to swim in rivers in the dead of winter both men were all too aware of the risks of becoming too comfortable and the benefits of adding discomfort to one's life day to day we often distance ourselves from death often thinking that it is something that happens to others or to us many many years from now but the truth is that death is at our shoulder every day an ever-present fact of life today may very well be your last living with this as a reminder brings with it a deep gratitude for many of the things we take for granted knowing that whatever it is may be one of the last few times we are able to experience it whether that be sound of leaves in the wind the company of those we love are simply the taste of good food to the stoix this was the practice of memento mori the practice of remembering death the nature of life is change from the very first shifts of the universe the most simple of elements gathered together to produce clouds and then solid bodies bodies that began to form the very first ingredients for life those ingredients formed life the circle of birth and death until eventually they came together in the exact configuration needed to create you and me like the beginning the peak and the crashing end of a wave our lives are simply part of a grander cycle we are formed we experience and we end and with our end comes the opportunity for the reconfiguration of our atoms to allow another to come and go and to enjoy the experience of life and so on forever the nature of the entire universe is change from the very big to the very small [Music] lives are often not made better in the accomplishments of lofty goals or the collection of expensive things so much as they are improved by the small day-to-day changes of one's habits the decisions to wake up a little earlier get out of the house a little more often go for a run read that book that's been gathering dust or try to be more present in the company of the things and people we love while of course great achievements do contribute to it habits built over time not short bursts of joy are often the paving stones to a happier life there is a delicate balance to be had when looking to the future and the past the future is necessary for long-term planning and preparation for events that seem likely to happen however look too long towards the horizon and it's easy to let life slip by and miss the very thing you spent all that time planning and preparing for similarly the past can be used as a tool to learn but looking back to what was may also mean that you missed the life into which you've taken all the lessons of the past the future can be used to plan and prepare the past can be used to learn but life only happens in the present when i meet death as we all must do the time and place will be largely outside of my control if tomorrow then i will die tomorrow and if a year from now or 20 years from now then i will meet it then it is in the very nature of a living thing to die regardless of how much we resist it however for now i am alive so i will put to use what is within my control and decide what to do with the time that is given to me i am not soothing you or making light of your misfortune if fate can be overcome by tears let us bring tears to bear upon it let every day be passed in mourning every night be spent in sorrow instead of sleep let your breast be toned by your own hands your very face attacked by them and every kind of cruelty be practiced by your grief if it will profit you but if the dead cannot be brought back to life however much we may beat our breasts if destiny remains fixed and immovable forever not to be changed by any sorrow however great and death does not lose his hold on anything that he has once taken away then let our futile grief be brought to an end let us then steer our own course and no longer allow ourselves to be driven to leeward by the force of our misfortune he is a sorry pilot who lets the waves ring his rudder from his grasp who leaves the sails to fly loose and abandons the ship to the storm but he who boldly grasps the helm and clings to it until the sea closes over him deserves praise even though he be shipwrecked [Music] never let the future disturb you you will meet it if you have to with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present [Music] there are misfortunes which strike the sage without incapacitating him of course such as physical pain infirmity the loss of friends or children or the catastrophes of his country when it is devastated by war i grant that he is sensitive to these things for we do not impute to him the hardness of rock or of iron there is no virtue in putting up with that which one does not feel and they say that there is this difference between the mind of a foolish man and that of a wise man that the foolish man thinks that such visions are in fact as dreadful and terrifying as they appear with the original impact of them on his mind and by his ascent he approves of such ideas as if they were rightly to be feared and confirms them but the wise man after being affected for a short time and slightly in his color and expression does not ascend but retains the steadfastness and strength of the opinion which he has always had about visions of this kind namely that they are in no wise to be feared but excite terror by a false appearance and vain alarms don't you know life is like a military campaign one must serve on watch another in reconnaissance another on the front line so it is for us each person's life is a kind of battle and a long and varied one too you must keep watch like a soldier and do everything commanded you have been stationed in a key post not some lowly place and not for a short time but for life seek not for events to happen as you wish but wish events to happen as they do and your life will go smoothly the chief task in life is simply this to identify and separate matters so that i can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control and which have to do with the choices i actually control where then do i look for good and evil not to uncontrollable externals but within myself to the choices that are my own one ought to seek out virtue for its own sake without being influenced by fear or hope or by any external influence moreover that in that does happiness consist what is your art to be good and how is this accomplished well except by general principles some about the nature of the universe and others about the proper constitution of man in our control is the most beautiful and important thing the thing because of which even the god himself is happy namely the proper use of our impressions we must concern ourselves absolutely with the things that are under our control and entrust the things not in our control to the universe men are disturbed not by things but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things it is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed to lay the blame on himself and of one whose instruction is completed neither to blame another nor himself one who knows not who he is and to what end he was born what kind of world is this and with whom he is associated therein one who cannot distinguish good and evil beauty and founders truth and falsehood will never follow reason in shaping his desires and impulses and repulsions nor yet in ascent denial or suspension of judgment but will in one word go about deaf and blind thinking himself to be somewhat when he is in truth of no account is there anything new in all this is not this ignorance the cause of all the mistakes and mischances of men since the human race began [Music] we are all chained to fortune the chain of one is made of gold and wide while that's of another is short and rusty but what difference does it make the same prison surrounds all of us and even those who have bound others are bound themselves unless per chance you think that a chain on the left side is lighter honours bind one man wealth another nobility oppresses some humility others some are held in subjection by an external power while others obey the tyrant within banishments keep some in place the priesthood others all life is slavery therefore each one must accustom himself to his own condition and complain about it as little as possible and lay hold to whatever good is to be found near him nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it small tablets because of the writer's skill have often served for many purposes and a clever arrangement has often made a very narrow piece of land habitable apply reason to difficulties harsh circumstances can be softened narrow limits can be widened and burdensome things can be made to press less severely on those who bear them cleverly if you are distressed by anything external the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your estimate of it and this you have the power to revoke at any moment these reasonings are unconnected i am richer than you therefore i am better i am more eloquent than you therefore i am better the connection is rather this i am richer than you therefore my property is greater than yours i am more eloquent than you therefore my style is better than yours but you after all are neither property nor style [Music] if you have given way to anger be sure that over and above the evil involved therein you have strengthened the habit and added fuel to the fire if overcome by a temptation of the flesh do not reckon it a single defeat but that you have also strengthened your dissolute habits habits and faculties are necessarily affected by the corresponding acts one who has had fever even when it has left him is not in the same condition of health as before unless indeed his cure is complete something of the same sort is true also of diseases of the mind behind there remains a legacy of traces and of blisters and unless these are effectually erased subsequent blows on the same spot will produce no longer mere blisters but sores if you do not wish to be prone to anger do not feed the habit give it nothing which may tend to its increase at first keep quiet and count the days when you were not angry i used to be angry every day then every other day next every two next every three days and if you succeed in passing 30 days sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving adorn when you have trouble getting out of bed tell yourself i have to go to work as a human being what do i have to complain of if i'm going to do what i was born for the things i was brought into the world to do or is this what i was created for to huddle under the blankets and stay warm until we have begun to go without them we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are we've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them if you seek tranquility do less or more accurately do what's essential what the logos of a social being requires and in the requisite way which brings a double satisfaction to do less better because most of what we say and do is not essential if you can eliminate it you'll have more time and more tranquility ask yourself at every moment is this necessary riches are a cause of evil not because of themselves they do any evil but because they goad men on so that they are ready to do evil in general any method of discipline applied to the body which tends to modify its desires or potions are good for acetic ends but if done for display they betray at once a man who keeps an eye on outward show who has an ulterior purpose and is looking for spectators to shout oh what a great man this is why apollonia's so well said if you are bent upon a little private discipline wait till you are choking with heat one day then take a mouthful of cold water and spit it out again and tell no man what is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bees a commitment to justice in your own acts which means thought in action resulting in the common good what you were born to do [Music] men do not care how nobly they live but only how long although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly but within no man's power to live long he who is running a race ought to endeavour and strive to the utmost of his ability to come off victor but it is utterly wrong for him to trip up his competitor or to push him aside so in life it is not unfair for one to seek for himself what may accrue to his benefit but it is not right to take it from another for mankind evil is injustice and cruelty and indifference to a neighbor's trouble while virtue is brotherly love and goodness and justice and beneficence and concern for the welfare of your neighbor [Music] the courageous in exile or at home is fearless in the face of all such threats for that reason they've the courage to say what they think equally at home or in exile philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for a man otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject matter for as the material of the carpenter is wood and that of statuary bronze so the subject matter of the art of living is each person's own life my advice is really this what we hear the philosophers saying and what we find in their writings should be applied in our pursuit of the happy life we should hunt out their helpful pieces of teaching and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application not far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech and learn them so well that the words become works no one to my mind lets humanity down quite so much as those who study philosophy as if it were a sort of commercial skill and then proceeds to live in a quite different manner to the one they tell other people to live it does not matter what you bear but how you bear it you could leave life right now let that determine what you do and say and think the chief task in life is simply this to identify and separate matters so that i can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control and which have to do with the choices i actually control where then do i look for good and evil not to uncontrollable externals but within myself to the choices that are my own true happiness is to enjoy the present without anxious dependence upon the future not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have which is sufficient for he that is so once nothing the greatest blessings of mankind within us and within our reach a wise man is content with his lot whatever it may be without wishing for what he has not don't seek for everything to happen as you wish it would but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will then your life will flow well if anyone can refute me show me i'm making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective i'll gladly change it's the truth i'm after and the truth never harmed anyone if you accomplish something good with hard work the labor passes quickly but the good endures if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure the pleasure passes quickly but the shame endures a gem cannot be polished without friction nor a man perfected without trials be tolerant with others and strict with yourself no person has the power to have everything they want but it is in their power not to want what they don't have and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have you will earn the respect of all if you begin by earning the respect of yourself don't expect to encourage good deeds in people conscious of your own misdeeds the greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude excellence is never an accident it is always the result of high intention sincere effort and intelligent execution it represents the wise choice of many alternatives choice not chance determines your destiny we are more often frightened than heard and we suffer more in imagination than in reality man conquers the world by conquering himself how does it help to make troubles heavier by bemoaning them you have power over your mind not outside events realize this and you will find strength if it is not right do not do it if it is not true do not say it you should live in such a way that there is nothing which you could not as easily tell your enemy as keep to yourself [Music] waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be the high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think we have two ears and one mouth so we should listen more than we say the impediment to action advances action what stands in the way becomes the way [Music] don't promise twice what you can do once [Music] a man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it is committing another mistake he who has a why to live for can bear almost any how remember two things one that everything has always been the same and keeps recurring and it makes no difference whether you see the same things recur in 100 years or 200 or in an infinite period two that the longest lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing the present is all they can give up since that is all you have and what you do not have you cannot lose [Music] ultimately man should not ask what the meaning of his life is but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked in a word each man is questioned by life and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life to life he can only respond by being responsible no amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen the happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts to my way of thinking is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company the greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another i begin to speak only when i'm certain what i'll say isn't better left unsaid all hellenistic schools seem to define wisdom in approximately the same terms first and foremost as a state of perfect peace of mind from this viewpoint philosophy appears as a remedy for human worries anguish and misery brought about for the cynics by social constraints and conventions for the epicureans by the quest for false pleasures for the stoics by the pursuit of pleasure and egotistic self-interest and for the skeptics by false opinions whether or not they lay claim to the socratic heritage all hellenistic philosophers agreed with socrates that human beings are plunged into misery anguish and evil because they exist in ignorance evil is to be found not within things but in the value judgments which people bring to bear upon things people can therefore be cured of their ills only if they are persuaded to change their value judgments and in this sense all these philosophies wanted to be therapeutic you

Channel: Orion Philosophy

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Keywords: stoic, stoicism, stoic philosophy, stoicism quotes, quotes, stoic quotes

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Length: 46min 56sec (2816 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 31 2021