better life
/betterlife11
“Well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing.” —Zeno
"Pay attention to what's in front of you—the principle, the task, or what's being portrayed."
—Marcus Aurelius
—Marcus Aurelius
"Show me someone sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and happy, exiled and happy, disgraced and happy. Show me! By God, how much I'd like to see a Stoic.
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"If you don't wish to be a hot-head, don't feed your habit. Try as a first step to remain calm and count the days you haven't been angry. I used to be angry every day, now every other day, then every third or fourth ... if you make it as far as 30 days, thank God! For habit is first weakened and then obliterated.
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"Don't set your mind on things you don't possess as if they were yours, but count the blessings you actually possess and think how much you would desire them if they weren't already yours. But watch yourself, that you don't value these things to the point of being troubled if you should lose them."
—Marcus Aurelius
—Marcus Aurelius
"Those obsessed with glory attach their well-being to the regard of others, those who love pleasure tie it to feelings, but the one with true understanding seeks it only in their own actions ...
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"Every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking, and running by running ... therefore, if you want to do something make a habit of it, if you don't want to do that, don't, but make a habit of something else instead.
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"Kindness is invincible, but only when it's sincere, with no hypocrisy or faking. For what can even the most malicious person do if you keep showing kindness and, if given the chance, you gently point out where they went wrong—right as they are trying to harm you?"
—Marcus Aurelius
—Marcus Aurelius
"The greatest portion of peace of mind is doing nothing wrong. Those who lack self-control live disoriented and disturbed lives."
—Seneca
—Seneca
"Let us also produce some bold act of our own—and join the ranks of the most emulated."
—Seneca
—Seneca
"Let us therefore set out whole-heartedly, leaving aside our many distractions and exert ourselves in this single purpose, before we realize too late the swift and unstoppable flight of time and are left behind.
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"Where is Good? In our reasoned choices. Where is Evil? In our reasoned choices. Where is that which is neither Good nor Evil? In the things outside of our own reasoned choice."
—Epictetus
—Epictetus
"God laid down this law, saying: if you want some good, get it from yourself."
—Epictetus
—Epictetus
"Then what makes a beautiful human being? Isn't it the presence of human excellence? Young friend, if you wish to be beautiful, then work diligently at human excellence. And what is that? Observe those whom you praise without prejudice. The just or the unjust? The just. The even-tempered or the undisciplined?
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"The raw material for the work of a good and excellent person is their own guiding reason, the body is that of the doctor and the physical trainer, and the farm the farmer's."
—Epictetus
—Epictetus
"How much better is it to be known for doing well by many than for living extravagantly? How much more worthy than spending on sticks and stones is it to spend on people?"
—Musonius Rufus
—Musonius Rufus
"Those who receive the bare theories immediately want to spew them, as an upset stomach does its food. First digest you theories and you won't throw them up. Otherwise they will be raw, spoiled, and not nourishing.
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"First tell yourself what kind of person you want to be, then do what you have to do. For in nearly every pursuit we see this to be the case. Those in athletic pursuit first choose the sport they want, and then do that work."
—Epictetus
—Epictetus
"For philosophy doesn't consist in outward display, but in taking heed to what is needed and being mindful of it."
—Musonius Rufus
—Musonius Rufus
"Just as what is considered rational or irrational differs for each person, in the same way what is good or evil and useful or useless differs for each person. This is why we need education, so that we might learn how to adjust our preconceived notions of the rational and irrational in harmony with nature.
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"Watch the stars in their courses and imagine yourself running alongside them. Think constantly on the changes of the elements into each other, for such thoughts wash away the dust of earthly life."
—Marcus Aurelius
—Marcus Aurelius
"Tantalus: The highest power is—
Thyestes: No power, if you desire nothing."
—Seneca
Thyestes: No power, if you desire nothing."
—Seneca
"Turn it inside out and see what it is like—what it becomes like when old, sick, or prostituting itself. How short-lived the praiser and praised, the one who remembers and the remembered.
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"When your sparring partner scratches or head-butts you, you don't then make a show of it, or protest, or view him with suspicion or as plotting against you. And yet you keep an eye on him, not as an enemy or with suspicion, but with a healthy avoidance.
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"If anyone can prove and show to me that I think and act in error, I will gladly change it—for I seek the truth, by which no one has ever been harmed. The one who is harmed is the one who abides in deceit and ignorance."
—Marcus Aurelius
—Marcus Aurelius
"Just as when meat or other foods are set before us we think, this is a dead fish, a dead bird or pig; and also, this fine wine is only the juice of a bunch of grapes, this purple-edged robe just a sheep's wool dyed in a bit of blood from a shellfish; ...
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