#stoicism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #stoicism, aggregated by home.social.
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To be stoic is not to be emotionless, but to remain unaffected by your emotions.
— James Pierce
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"We are weak, watery beings standing in the midst of unrealities; therefore let us turn our minds to the things that are everlasting."
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At eight, a near-drowning off Gallipoli left my eyes open underwater, registering everything with a clarity I never matched again. Decades later, people close to me still read that same calm as not caring. Albert Ellis and Epictetus, nineteen centuries apart, explain why the proportion I found that morning has never left.
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"Our luxuries have condemned us to weakness; we have ceased to be able to do that which we have long declined to do."
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"Would not anyone who is a man have his slumbers broken by a war-trumpet rather than by a chorus of serenaders?"
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"And what is freedom, you ask? It means not being a slave to any circumstance, to any constraint, to any chance; it means compelling Fortune to enter the lists on equal terms."
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The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.
— Marcus Aurelius
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"For what else are you busied with except improving yourself every day, laying aside some error, and coming to understand that the faults which you attribute to circumstances are in yourself?"
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"Show me that the good in life does not depend upon life’s length, but upon the use we make of it; also, that it is possible, or rather usual, for a man who has lived long to have lived too little. Say to me when I lie down to sleep: “You may not wake again!” And when I have waked: “You may not go to sleep again!” Say to me when I go forth from my house: “You may not return!” And when I return: “You may never go forth again!”"
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"Would you really know what philosophy offers to humanity? Philosophy offers counsel."
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"Adapt yourself to the environment in which your lot has been cast, and show true love to the fellow-mortals with whom destiny has surrounded you."
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"“He is a slave.” His soul, however, may be that of a freeman. “He is a slave.” But shall that stand in his way? Show me a man who is not a slave; one is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to ambition, and all men are slaves to fear."
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Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours
— Marcus Aurelius
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"I propose to value them according to their character, and not according to their duties. Each man acquires his character for himself, but accident assigns his duties."
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"“They are slaves,” people declare. Nay, rather they are men. “Slaves!” No, comrades. “Slaves!” No, they are unpretentious friends. “Slaves!” No, they are our fellow-slaves, if one reflects that Fortune has equal rights over slaves and free men alike."
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"He that owns himself has lost nothing. But how few men are blessed with ownership of self!"
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"“You will have less money.” Yes, and less trouble. “Less influence.” Yes, and less envy."
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Diogenes of Sinope said we sell things of great value for things of very little, and vice versa.
— Diogenes Laertius
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"No man ought to glory except in that which is his own."
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"If you see a man who is unterrified in the midst of dangers, untouched by desires, happy in adversity, peaceful amid the storm, who looks down upon men from a higher plane, and views the gods on a footing of equality, will not a feeling of reverence for him steal over you, will you not say: “This quality is too great and too lofty to be regarded as resembling this petty body in which it dwells? A divine power has descended upon that man.”"
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"Then it is that the height of unhappiness is reached, when men are not only attracted, but even pleased, by shameful things, and when there is no longer any room for a cure, now that those things which once were vices have become habits."
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"It is the quality of a great soul to scorn great things and to prefer that which is ordinary rather than that which is too great."
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Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
— Marcus Aurelius
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"It is disgraceful, instead of proceeding ahead, to be carried along, and then suddenly, amid the whirlpool of events, to ask in a dazed way: “How did I get into this condition?”"
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"Would you know what makes men greedy for the future? It is because no one has yet found himself."
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"I forbid you to be cast down or depressed. It is not enough if you do not shrink from work; ask for it."
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"He who does not wish to die cannot have wished to live."
