“If you are riled up by these things, you are riled up by the judgments you make about them: that they are bad, that they are important, that one should get riled up about them” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“We always feel as though we react to things in the world; in fact we react to things in ourselves” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“We underrate the power of these judgments because we barely notice them. Stoics notice them.” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“No, it just means you have conflicting judgments – that spiders are safe and that they aren’t.” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“The Stoics say that some reactions have a physical basis we can’t control” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
” 1. The general principle. Stoicism starts with the idea that our experience of the world – our reactions, fears, desires, all of it – is not produced by the world. It is produced by what the Stoics call our judgments, or opinions.” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“the opinion that death is terrible – that is the terrible thing” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“treat how we talk to ourselves as a choice” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“notice the irrationality that drives much of what we say to ourselves and to replace it with something wiser” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“so that if you are fortunate, you know this will not last long; or if you are unfortunate, you know that you aren’t really, if you don’t think you are” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“intensity of the pain depends on the state of mind of the sufferer, not on its own intrinsic nature” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“the same pain “ (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“despised” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“endures” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“bears bravely” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“Our hunger or thirst presents itself as a sensation of the body, not as something in the mind that we might be able to change with our thinking” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“We allow ourselves to get hungry, or not; we tantalize ourselves with comparisons and other thoughts that stir desire, or we don’t” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“Cultivation is called for in cases like the one Seneca describes above, as when learning how to take satisfaction from simple and natural pleasures” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“The work of philosophy is to take responsibility for our own thinking, and in so doing to liberate ourselves from the attachments and misjudgments that otherwise dictate our experience” (Chapter:Chapter One Judgment)
“Chapter Two EXTERNALS” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
” such as money, fame, and calamity” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“regard externals without attachment. This has consequences” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“If Stoics are distinguished by one policy as an everyday matter, it is a refusal to worry about things beyond their control or to otherwise get worked up about them” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“distinguish between preferences and attachments” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“Having what you prefer is pleasing, and not having it is a disappointment, but it’s no threat to your equanimity” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“Stoicism is the effort to turn that around and to move one’s center of gravity to a more useful location” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“Things up to us are our opinions, desires, aversions, and, in short, whatever is our own doing. Things not up to us are our bodies, possessions, reputations, offices, or, in short, whatever is not our own doing.” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“He, who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing any thing, but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“In other words, his center of gravity is not in himself; it is constantly changing its place, with every wish and whim.” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“Generally the Stoics identify the good with the rightful use of reason, which in turn leads them to a life led for the benefit of the whole – that is, for others” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“More immediately it means avoiding vices such as greed, dishonesty, and excess” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“To use health well is good, to use it badly is evil” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“nothing is good or evil if it can happen as easily to a good person as a bad one” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“Whoever then wishes to be free, let him neither wish for anything nor flee from anything that depends on others: otherwise he must be a slave” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“If you gape after externals, you will inevitably be forced up and down according to the will of your master. And who is your master? Whoever has power over the things you are trying to gain or avoid.” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“Man is not the master of man, but death and life and pleasure and pain.” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“In short, if you hear him say, “Wretched me, the things I have to endure!” call him a slave. If you see him wailing, or complaining, or in misery, call him a slave” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“Show me who is not a slave. One is a slave to lust, another to avarice, another to ambition, and all are slaves to fear” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“First is the practice of adding nothing when an external presents itself. As soon as an event happens, we are quick to assign it a meaning. It is tagged as good news or bad news, as a reason for excitement or outrage, and so on. Or we give it a place in a story that we tell ourselves, long-running or new” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“We should do the same in all areas of life, and, whenever things appear too highly valued, we should lay them bare in our minds, perceive their cheapness, and strip off the prestige they have traditionally been assigned.” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“however strongly a false light – here of rank and position, there of great power – beats down on the beholder.” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“At present you are taking the word of others for what you are.” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“6. Knowing the difference. The first question that Stoics typically ask about any apparent problem or prospect is whether it is up to them” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“How can I know what the next throw of the dice will be? But to use the throw carefully and skillfully, this belongs to me” (Chapter:Chapter Two Externals)
“One is that things in the world do not touch your spirit, but stand quietly external to it” (Chapter:Chapter Three Perspective)
“that which disturbs us comes only from the opinions within us” (Chapter:Chapter Three Perspective)
“Stoics may be classified as pragmatists. If a perspective has the consequence of freeing us from a bad psychological habit, they do not hesitate to recommend it” (Chapter:Chapter Three Perspective)
“So many revolutions, so many changes in the fates of nations, teach us to see our own fate as no cause for astonishment” (Chapter:Chapter Three Perspective)
“Likewise, the difference between dying at a great age and dying tomorrow you should consider no great thing” (Chapter:Chapter Three Perspective)
“many don’t know your name at all, how many will quickly forget it, how many who – perhaps praising you now – will soon be finding fault” (Chapter:Chapter Three Perspective)
“Realize that being remembered has no value, nor does your reputation, nor anything else at all.” (Chapter:Chapter Three Perspective)
“The things highly valued in life are empty and rotten and trivial; we are little dogs biting each other, quarrelsome children laughing and then crying…. Reputation, in such a world, is meaningless. “ (Chapter:Chapter Three Perspective)
“each man is worth just as much as the things he cares about” (Chapter:Chapter Three Perspective)
“The fact that we will soon be gone can induce some of the same changes in mindset as the perspectives considered in the previous chapter” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“What we must overcome is not death but the way we think about it.” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“But now we have the opposite: toward death, avoidance; toward our opinions about it, carelessness, indifference, and neglect.” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“He who has learned to die has unlearned slavery” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“No good thing makes its possessor happy unless his mind is prepared for its loss” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“We must make ready for death before we make ready for life” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“for death also has a bad reputation, but none of those who malign death have tried it. Seneca” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“The brave and wise man should not flee from life but withdraw from it” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“What matters is not how long you live, but how well; and often living well means that you cannot live long.” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“if death comes near with its summons, even though it be untimely in its arrival, and even if it cuts you off in your prime, you will have had the enjoyment of all that the longest life can give” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“will be in credit: he has given it back a better life than he received” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“What you have accomplished will only become evident when you draw your last breath. I accept the terms; I do not shrink from the judgment” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“death is regarded by the Stoics as a resource – a remedy for pride and a teacher of wisdom” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“If you wish to fear nothing, consider that everything is to be feared. Seneca” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“The perfection of moral character consists in this: to spend each day as if it were the last, to be neither agitated nor numb, and not to pretend.” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“You are going to die at any minute, and yet you still are not simple and straightforward, nor do you have peace of mind, nor are you free from suspicion that you will be hurt by external things, nor are you kind to everyone, nor do you see that being wise consists solely in being just” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“Let us order our minds as if we had come to the end. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s account every day” (Chapter:Chapter Four Death)
“Seneca, along with others we will see, gave early recognition to many tendencies of the mind that are relearned, often the hard way, by every generation and most individuals: that we most desire what we do not or cannot have; that the pursuit of a thing is more pleasing than the possession of it; that possession of a good and familiarity with it tend to produce indifference or disgust; that we mismeasure the value of what we have, or don’t have, by comparing it to our expectations or to the holdings of others. In sum, we talk to ourselves about our desires in ways that are constantly misleading” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“Who was ever satisfied, after attainment, with that which loomed up large as he prayed for it? Seneca, Epistles” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“Why wait until there is nothing left for you to crave? That time will never come. We say that there is a succession of causes from which fate is put together. There is likewise a succession of desires: one is born from the end of another. Seneca, Epistles” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“At last, then, away with all these treacherous goods, better when hoped for than when attained! “ (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“He who has more than enough and yet hungers for still more will find no remedy in gold or silver or horses and sheep and cattle, but in casting out the source of mischief and being purged. For his ailment is not poverty, but insatiability and avarice, arising from the presence in him of a false and unreflecting judgment; and unless someone removes this, like a tapeworm, from his mind, he will never cease to need superfluities – that is, to want what he does not need.” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“things that are present are never enough. It is not, in my view, that they lack what it takes to satisfy us, but rather that we hold them in an unhealthy and immoderate grip” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“survey the Pyramids, and confess thy folly.” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; “ (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“Sometimes this is because finally possessing what one wanted allows its unimportance to be exposed.” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“between one permanent situation and another, there was, with regard to real happiness, no essential difference: or that, if there were any difference, it was no more than just sufficient to render some of them the objects of simple choice or preference; but not of any earnest or anxious desire” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“The slightest observation, however, might satisfy him, that, in all the ordinary situations of human life, a well-disposed mind may be equally calm, equally cheerful, and equally contented.” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“Some of the healthy comparisons suggested by the Stoics are to people and circumstances from the past” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“Do you ask me what is your greatest fault? Your bookkeeping is wrong. What you have paid out, you value highly; what you have received, low.” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“Don’t spoil what’s here by longing for what’s not here, but realize that these too were things to be prayed for. Epicurus” (Chapter:Chapter Five Desire)
“Once we have money, we worry about keeping it, are anxious for more of it, and feel pain when it is lost” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Stoics regard wisdom and understanding as producing a kind of joy that is immune from interruption by circumstance” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Money is hard to see and understand clearly; it causes us to misjudge the value of things, and it drives those who worship it into low behavior” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“That which had made poverty a burden to us has made riches a burden as well” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“not only that wealth fails to satisfy but that it tends to rule those who possess it and bring about its own forms of unhappiness.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Seneca regarded the eventual consequence of greed to be a certain type of diseased judgment” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“We might define the disease this way: to strive too hard for things that are only worth wanting a little or not at all, or to value things highly that ought to be valued only somewhat or not at all.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Stoics view pleasures as costlier than they seem – as not lasting long, as always exacting a price, and as invariably alternating with some sort of loss or pain.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“beware the treachery of our appetites, and to distinguish true and complete pleasures from those that are mixed and interwoven with even more pain.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“gods sell us every good they give us” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession; and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain, is no less an enemy to his quiet, than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“To select the part belongs to someone else.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Just as you are satisfied with how much substance has been allotted to you, be content also with the time.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“One path to acceptance is to imagine the position in which we hope to be left once a desire is fulfilled, and to ask whether the wished-for state might be attained more directly” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“But money, if held without attachment, is unobjectionable – for the money isn’t the point. The point is the health of the mind.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Detachment refers more to the way in which something is held and to whether the mind has been given over to it in an excessive wa” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“consider how well you would handle its loss.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“by regarding them as always about to depart” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“He says those things are to be despised not in order that he not have them, but in order that he not worry about keeping them.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Wealth and reputation and power and public office delight most of all those who least fear their opposites. For the violent desire for each of these implants a most violent fear that they may not remain, and so renders pleasure in them weak and unstable, like a fluttering flame.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Let the thing wait for you, and give yourself some delay” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Moderation is regarded by the Stoic not only as an admired virtue but as a helpful technique” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“not how much you want to take, but how much you ought to take” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Moderation is not the scourge of pleasure, but the seasoning of it.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“nature is insistent, and cannot be overcome; it demands its due” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“beware the more sluggish faults – fear, moroseness, discouragement, and suspicion” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“pleasures associated with understanding and wisdom, which might be enjoyed even immoderately without fear of recoil.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“socialized while they went about it” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“can look upon all things with kindly eyes, and value everything according to its true worth.” (Chapter:Chapter Six Wealth and Pleasure)
“Stoic way of looking at approval and criticism – that is, what others think” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“This chapter can also be considered a Stoic examination of vanity and pride” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Stoics also offer specific ways to think about attacks and respond to them” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Any of these responses is better than fearing the opinions of others;” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Stoics usually can accept insults in good humor” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“If we are criticized unjustly, the critics are mistaken and entitled to compassion” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“On most journeys some recognizable road, and inquiries made of the locals, prevent you from going astray; but on this one the paths most worn and used are also the most deceptive. “ (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Everyone wants the good opinion of those they define as their circle, or audience” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“In all we do, almost the first thing we think about is, what will people say; and nearly half the troubles and bothers of life may be traced to our anxiety on this score” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“how to manage the appetite for praise. Education on that subject begins with a sober view of those whose good opinions we want. This is a point emphasized by all of the Stoic teachers” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Well, then, is that what you want – to be admired by lunatics?” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“What goes on in other people’s consciousness is, as such, a matter of indifference to us; and in time we get really indifferent to it, when we come to see how superficial and futile are most people’s thoughts” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Cicero had pungent views on our current theme, viewing fame as the accumulated opinions of people whose views are worth nothing” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“And in truth, he who depends upon the caprice of the ignorant rabble cannot be numbered among the great” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Mass popularity suggests a want of quality or integrity in whoever obtains it” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“You should have done better. If you had done it artfully they would not have applauded you” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Soon you will have forgotten everything; soon everything will have forgotten you. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.21” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“until all recollection has been extinguished by passing through a succession of people who foolishly admire and perish.” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Or is it this thing called reputation that worries you” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Look at the speed with which everything is forgotten; the vast gulf of boundless time on either side of us; the emptiness of applause; the changeable, undiscriminating nature of those who seem to praise; the tiny space in which it all takes place.” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“f all, he gives less weight to his own opinion of himself than to the opinion of others” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Evidently we have more respect for the opinions our neighbors hold about us than we do for our own.” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Do not waste the time you have left thinking about others unless it serves some good and useful purpose, for it takes you away from other work” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“And taking one’s own perceptions seriously isn’t just a better habit than listening to others or worrying about what they might think. It is an essential part of Stoic practice” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“speaking the truth to ourselves instead of repeating what everyone else says” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Be deaf to those who love you most of all; they pray for bad things with good intentions.” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“pray to the gods that none of their fond desires for you may be brought to pass” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Those things they wish to have heaped upon you are not really good; there is only one good, the cause and the support of a happy life – trust in oneself” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“No longer be concerned with what the world says about you, but with how you talk to yourself.” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“we might talk to ourselves more intelligently, and without dependence on the opinion of an audience” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“You have a task at hand: to wrestle courageously with disease. If it cannot force you to do anything, or persuade you to do anything, you are setting a distinguished example” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Be your own spectator; seek your own applause.” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“When you want to be praised sincerely, why be indebted to someone else for it? Praise yourself. Say” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“A few is enough for me; so is one; so is none” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“virtuous deeds are too noble in themselves to seek any reward other than their own value, and especially to seek it in the vanity of human judgments” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Not fame, but that which deserves to be famous, is what a man should hold in esteem….” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“as Lessing nicely puts it, Some people obtain fame, and others deserve it” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“An effective insult requires a kind of cooperation from the victim – a judgment, for example, that the insult matters” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“The success of an insult depends on the sensitivity and the indignation of the victim” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Stand by a stone and insult it; what will you gain?” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“And if you listen like a stone, what will be gained by one who insults you?” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“dismiss the opinion within you that is responsible for it” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“The Stoic regards the contempt of others with indifference, or contempt, or a welcoming spirit. Anything but fear will do” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Someone will disdain me? That is his concern. My concern is that I not be found doing or saying anything worthy of disdain.” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“Contempt remains to be discussed. You have the measure of it under your control if you make it your own – if you are despised because you choose to be, not because you deserve to be” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“The insults of the ignorant should be heard with equanimity” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“For one who is progressing toward virtue, contempt should itself be regarded with contempt.” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“no wrong had been done” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“if he insults you, your mind is disturbed and confounded – aren’t you ashamed of that?” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“avoiding the unquiet life of one who fears everybody’s laughter, everybody’s tongue.” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“The time spent on it might have been spent on things that matter” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“insults and honors of the crowd should both be valued the same” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“We will see in Chapter 8 that Stoicism calls for a frank view of one’s own flaws” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“The lowest walk is the safest. It is the seat of constancy” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think)
“understandings are defective?” (Chapter:Chapter Seven What Others Think) #stoicism