💾 Archived View for altesq.net › ~masqq › quotes.gmi captured on 2022-06-11 at 20:49:32. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2022-06-03)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
It's not things that upset us, but our judgements about things.
If you would be free, then, do not wish to have, or avoid, things that other people control, because then you must serve as their slave.
You will never have to experience defeat if you avoid contests whose outcome is outside your control.
If I can make money while remaining honest, trustworthy and dignified, show me how and I will do it. But if you expect me to sacrifice my own values, just so you can get your hands on things that aren't even good - well, you can see yourself how thoughtless and unfair you're being.
But if you won't pay the bill and still want the benefits, you are not only greedy but a fool.
If your body was turned over to just anyone, you would doubltess take exception. Why aren't you ashamed that you have made your mind vulnerable to anyone who happens to criticize you, so that it automatically becomes confused and upset?
You're like a monkey who imitates whatever it happens to see, infatuated with one thing after another. You haven't approached anything attentively, or though things through; your approach to projects is casual and capricious.
Settle on the type of person you want to be and stick to it, whether alone or in company.
Let silence be your goal for the most part; say only what is necessary, and be brief about it.
On the rare occasions when you're called upon to speak, then speak, but never about banalities like gladiators, horses, sports, food and drink - commonplace stuff. Above all don't gossip about people, praising, blaming or comparing them.
Avoid fraternizing with nonphilosophers. If you must, though, be careful not to sink to their level; because, you know, if a companion is dirty, his friends cannot help but get a little dirty too, no matter how clean they started out.
Keep laughter to a minimum; do not laugh too often or too loud.
Yelling, jeering and excessive agitation should be avoided completely.
Avoid trying to be funny. That way vulgarity lies, and at the same time it's likely to lower you in your friends' estimation.
In your conversation, don't dwell at excessive length on your own deeds or adventures. Just because you enjoy recounting your exploits doesn't mean that others derive the same pleasure from hearing about them.
It is also not a good idea to venture on profanity. If it happens, and you aren't out of line, you may even crticize a person who indulges in it. Otherwise, signal your dislike of his language by falling silent, showing unease or giving him a sharp look.
If you get an impression of something pleasurable, watch yourself so that you are not carried away by it. (...) Then reflect on both intervals of time: the time you will have to experience the pleasure, and the time after its enjoyment that you will beat yourself up over it. Contrast that with how happy and pleased you'll be if you abstain. Counter temptation by remembering how much better will be the knowledge that you resisted.
If you decide to do something; don't shrink from being seen doing it, even if the majority of people disapprove.
If you undertake a role beyond your means, you will not only embarrass yourself in that, you miss the chance of a role that you might have filled successfully.
As you are careful when you walk not to step on a nail or turn your ankle, so you should take care not to do any injury to your character at the same time.
As with shoes - if you don't limit yourself to what the foot needs, you wind up with gold heels, purple pumps or even embroidered slippers. There's no end once the natural limit has been exceeded.
It shows a lack of refinement to spend a lot of time exercising, eating, drinking, defecating or copulating.
The following are non-sequiturs: 'I am richer, therefore superior to you'; or 'I am a better speaker, therefore a better person, than you.' These statements, on the other hand, are cogent: 'I am richer than you, therefore my wealth is superior to yours'; and 'I am a better speaker, therefore my diction is better than yours.' But you are neither wealth nor diction.
Someone bathes in haste; don't say he bathes badly, but in haste. Someone drinks a lot of wine; don't say he drinks badly, but a lot. Until you know their reasons, how do you know that their actions are vicious?
Never identify yourself as a philosopher or speak much to non-philosophers about your principles; act in line with those principles. At a dinner party, for instance, don't tell people the right way to eat, just eat the right way.
Sheep don't bring their owners grass to prove to them how much they've eaten, they digest it inwardly and outwardly bring forth milk and wool.
Don't make a show of your philosophical learning to the unitiated, show them by your actions what you have absorbed.
The mark and attitude of the ordinary man: never look for help or harm from yourself, only from outsiders. The mark and attitude of the philosopher: look for help and harm exclusively from yourself.
And the signs of a person making progress: he never criticizes, praises, blames or points the finger, or represents himself as knowing or amounting to anything. If he experiences frustration or dissapointment, he points the finger at himself. If he's praised, he's more amused than elated. And if he's criticized, he won't bother to respond. He walks around as if he were an invalid, careful not to move a healing limb before it's at full strength. He has expunged all desire, and made the things that are contrary to nature in his control the sole target of his aversion. Impulse he only uses with detachment. HE does not care if he comes across as stupid or naive. In a word, he keeps an eye on himself as if he were his own enemy lying in ambush.
Whatever your mission, stick by it as if it were a law and you would be committing sacrilege to betray it. Pay no attention to whatever people might say; this no longer should influence you.
How longer will you wait before you demand the best of yourself, and trust reason to determine what is best?
Finally decide that you are an adult who is going to devote the rest of your life to making progress. Abide by what seems best as if it were an inviolable law.
The first and most important field of philosophy is the application of principles such as 'Do not lie.'
We should act carefully in all things just as if we were going to answer for it to our teachers shortly thereafter.
We ought not to act and speak as if we were asleep.
The unexamined life is not worth living.