Quotes
You really gotta hunt for the good life. Jimmy Martin was a popular bluegrass musician from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Despite being a renowned and beloved musician, he was snubbed by the Grand Ole Opry because of his problems with alcohol. The quote above was his voicemail message before he passed...
Quotes
It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. I think all he was trying to say is that when you start with nothing and there are systems specifically … →
Quotes
Philosophy is good advice; and no one can give advice at the top of his lungs.
Quotes
A single tree is not remarkable if the whole forest rises to the same height.
Quotes
Seneca, while referring to the role that things play in our lives, had this to say: …mortals, most wretched in this respect also, are deceived: for we think that we hold them in our grasp but they hold us in theirs. Remember that stuff is just stuff. Our things are not what we are composed … →
Quotes
For we must indeed have someone according to whom we may regulate our characters; you can never straighten that which is crooked unless you use a ruler. I don’t recall which of Seneca’s letters this comes from but it reminds me of the core message in letter II, On Discursiveness In Reading where...
Quotes
What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself. A reminder that you are, invariably, your own worst enemy and your own worst critic. If there’s one person who will be on your side no matter what, it’s you. No matter what happens, be a good friend to … →
Quotes
Seneca is an interesting character. His proponents say he provides a rich, digestible version of realist Stoicism and greatly influenced early Christian thought. His detractors would point to his apparent misalignment between simple philosophy and extravagant lifestyle. I’ll take the middle...
Quotes
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and … →
Quotes
This is going to by my final quote from Marcus Aurelius for now. I realized so many of the quotes I highlighted should have been better curated and pruned. Many of them overlap or just do not contain the best of his work. This final quote, however, contains in it a fantastic distillation of...
Quotes
Think not so much of what though hast not as of what thou hast. Be thankful for what you have. Merry Christmas!
Quotes
Today’s quote is an old jazz standard. It’s a single sentence that sums up the whole of the Stoicism pretty damn well. It is on our power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be disturbed in our soul; for things themselves have no natural power to form our judgements. (Unrelated) I know...