Seneca for instance advises “to envisage every possibility and to strengthen the spirit to deal with the things which may conceivably come about. Rehearse them in your mind: exile, torture, war, shipwreck.”
~ Seneca / Courtesy Philosophersmag
Epictetus on Judgements:
It is not the things themselves that disturb people but their judgements about those things
~ Epictetus / Courtesy Philosophersmag
Catherine Wilson on Life
A life can be good in Epicurean terms, even if it does not involve achievements validated and rewarded by mainstream society, or great sacrifices and struggles against worldly temptations.
Wilson, Catherine.
The Pleasure Principle: Epicureanism: A Philosophy for Modern Living (p. 250). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Catherine Wilson on Life
Both excessive ambition and excessive self-sacrifice, [The Epicurean] believes, distort human life. We should neither strive for pre-eminence nor be driven into or choose slavish self-abnegation.
Wilson, Catherine.
The Pleasure Principle: Epicureanism: A Philosophy for Modern Living (pp. 248-249). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Plato on Desire
I feel as if I had escaped from a frantic and savage master. Unquestionably old age brings us profound repose and freedom from this and other passions.
~ Plato
Seneca on Suffering
“Two elements must therefore be rooted out once for all — the fear of future suffering, and the recollection of past suffering; since the latter no longer concerns me, and the former concerns me not yet.”
(Letters to Lucilius, LXXVIII.14)
~ Seneca
Seneca on Revenge
“The most contemptuous form of revenge is not to deem one’s adversary worth taking vengeance upon.”
~ Seneca
Seneca on Wrongdoing
“Wrongdoing has no harsher penalty than this: one offends oneself, and also one’s family and friends.”
~ Seneca
Confucius on Focus
“He who chases two rabbits catches none.”
~ Confucius
Confucius on Hatred
“If you hate a person, you are defeated by them.”
~ Confucius
Confucius on Wisdom
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
~ Confucius
Confucius on Thoughts
“Your life is what your thoughts make it.”
~ Confucius
Confucius on Questions
“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”
~ Confucius
Marcus Aurelius on Attention
“The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
Epicurus on Contentment
“Any man who does not think that what he has is more than ample, is an unhappy man, even if he is the master of the whole world.”
~ Epicurus
Seneca on Misery
“A man is as miserable as he thinks he is.”
~ Seneca
William Blake on Independence
I must create a system or be enslaved by another man’s.
~ William Blake
Friedrich Nietzsche on Life
“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different…”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Marcus Aurelius on Mistakes
“Other people’s mistakes? Leave them to their makers.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
Søren Kierkegaard on Truth
Don’t you know that a midnight hour comes when everyone has to take off his mask?
~ Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard on Interests
“It is perhaps the misfortune of my life that I am interested in far too much but not decisively in any one thing…”
~ Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard on Walking
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”
~
Søren Kierkegaard on Possibility
Pleasure disappoints, possibility never.
~ Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard on Labelling
“Once you label me you negate me.”
Seneca on Leisure
“Leisure without study is death‚ a tomb for the living person.”
~ Seneca
Seneca on Obstacles
Even if some obstacle comes on the scene, its appearance is only to be compared to that of clouds which drift in front of the sun without ever defeating its light.
~ Seneca
Cato on Speech
“Consider in silence whatever any one says: speech both conceals and reveals the inner soul of man.”
~ Cato
Hannah Arendt on Doing Nothing
“I will admit that there are other people who are primarily interested in doing something. I am not. I can very well live without doing anything. But I cannot live without at least trying to understand whatever happens.”
~ Hannah Arendt, 1972
Seneca on Calm
“To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.”
~ Seneca
Seneca on Burdens
“If you want to escape the burdens that oppress you, you should not be somewhere else, but someone else.”
~ Seneca
Seneca on Excellence
“Excellence withers without an adversary.”
~ Seneca
Seneca on Revenge
“How much better to heal than seek revenge from injury.”
~ Seneca