Stoic Philosophy - Blog Posts

#ME

You are owed/entitled to nothing.

An important part of minimizing your own unhappyness is letting go of the idea that you are obligated to recieve, or keep, something. Anything. Epicurus said that "He who is not satisfied with little, is satisfied with nothing". But he's dead now, so I won't just quote him without explanation.

In modern society, more is never enough. Yet we believe that if we just had more, we would be happy. Honestly thinking it over, this probably stems from the fact that most people try to 'achieve' happiness and then maintain it indefinitely. Which, of course, isn't possible. If more was enough, any millionaire would waltz around in eternal bliss, and Elon Musk wouldn't need to micromanage his image to feed his ego.

So if achieving more doesn't make us happy, maybe lowering our threshold for what we consider 'enough' will? Well, for me it certainly removed a lot of misery (Though not all of it - I'm still not brave enough to touch and hold a larger spider in my hand) from my life, without needing any money.

You, reading this right now, almost certainly feel like you are owed something. There's a simple way to check. If you were to lose both your legs, would you be angry? What if you lost the love of your life much too early? Oh, and I'm willing to bet that most people would be angry if their phone was stolen, enough so to let it ruin their day. This misery is because you feel that you are owed your limbs, or partner, or whatever you hold dear. But to who? The universe? It's silly to think that you feel the universe owes you your legs, and that cursing it and being bitter would change it's ways.

And indeed, with time, people who lose limbs return to their regular state of mood. So you might aswell minimize the time between you losing something and accepting your circumstances. Which is to say: You might as well start accepting that you are, on a spiritual level, owed fuckall.

You aren't owed people's appreciation or adoration no matter how good of a person you are.

You aren't owed a good girl just because you're a nice guy who would treat her like a queen (If you find yourself identifying with this one, you should maybe just try not thinking you are owed the affection of others from being a merely decent person)

The only thing I would argue you are entitled to is air. More specifically, you are entitled to breathe in air that isn't filled with Co2. This is because you're genetically designed to panic in such a case, no exceptions. So in that one instance, the harmony of nature is on your side, and you can freely panic to your hearts content.

With all this being said, I am definitely owed a heart and a repost by you. Otherwise you're a bad stoic and will go to stoicism hell (Las Vegas).

🌿 © Publilius Syrus, “Moral Sayings” (ancient latin writer, formerly a slave brought to Roman Italy from Antioch, 85-43 BC).

🌿 © Publilius Syrus, “Moral Sayings” (ancient latin writer, formerly a slave brought to Roman Italy from Antioch, 85-43 BC).

🌿 © Publilius Syrus, “Moral Sayings”

(ancient latin writer, formerly a slave brought to Roman Italy from Antioch, 85-43 BC).

🌿“It’s quite possible to be a good man without anyone realizing it. Remember that. And this too: you don’t need much to live happily. And just because you’ve abandoned your hopes of becoming a great thinker or scientist, don’t give up on attaining freedom, achieving humility, serving others, obeying God.”

🌿© Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”.

🌿“The worst punishment for crime lies in the crime itself. You are mistaken, I maintain, if you propose to reserve your punishments for the hangman or the prison; the crime is punished immediately after it is committed; nay, rather, at the moment when it is committed. Hence, good does not spring from evil, any more than figs grow from olive-trees.”

🌿© Seneca, “Moral Letters to Lucilius”

🌿“This is God’s law and nature’s: ‘Let the best man win.’ But ‘best’ in his area of expertise. One body is stronger than another body, many bodies are stronger than one; a thief has the advantage here over one who is not a thief. This is how I came to lose my lamp: the thief was better than I am in staying awake. But he acquired the lamp at a price: he became a thief for its sake, for its sake, he lost his ability to be trusted, for a lamp he became a brute. And he imagined he came out ahead!

🌿Fine words, you may say – but now I have been seized by the cloak and am being dragged downtown. Bystanders shout, ‘Hey, philosopher, what good did your views do you after all? Look, you’re being hauled of to prison and soon will be beheaded.’

🌿Tell me, what Introduction to Philosophy could I have read that would have saved me from being dragged away if a stronger man grabs me by the cloak; or could have kept me out of prison if I am assaulted by a gang of ten? What philosophy has taught me, though, is to be indifferent to events beyond the will’s control. Haven’t you profited in this respect too? So don’t look for help from philosophy except in areas where you have learned that help from it can be found.”

🌿© Epictetus, “Discourses”.

Share your favorite poem below!

🌱“All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it.” 🌱

🌿© Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”.

🌿"How closely flattery resembles friendship! It not only apes friendship, but outdoes it, passing it in the race; with wide-open and indulgent ears it is welcomed and sinks to the depths of the heart, and it is pleasing precisely wherein it does harm. Show me how I may be able to see through this resemblance! An enemy comes to me full of compliments, in the guise of a friend. Vices creep into our hearts under the name of virtues, rashness lurks beneath the appellation of bravery, moderation is called sluggishness, and the coward is regarded as prudent; there is great danger if we go astray in these matters. So stamp them with special labels."🌿

🌿© Seneca, "Moral Letters to Lucilius".

"Beyond question the feeling of a lover has in it something akin to friendship; one might call it friendship run mad. But, though this is true, does anyone love for the sake of gain, or promotion, or renown? Pure love, careless of all other things, kindles the soul with desire for the beautiful object, not without the hope of a return of the affection." © Seneca, "Moral Letters to Lucilius".

"He who cannot distinguish good from bad, and things which are neither good nor bad from both, can he possess the power of loving? To love, then, is only in the power of the wise.” © Epictetus, “Discourses

🌿"Some men, indeed, only begin to live when it is time for them to leave off living. And if this seems surprising to you, I shall add that which will surprise you still more: "Some men have left off living before they have begun."

🌿

🌿 © Seneca, "Moral Letters to Lucilius"🌿

“Diogenes says that there is one way to freedom, and that is to die content: and he writes to the Persian king, "You cannot enslave the Athenian state any more than you can enslave fishes."

"How is that? Cannot I catch them?"

"If you catch them," says Diogenes, "they will immediately leave you, as fishes do; for if you catch a fish, it dies; and if these men that are caught shall die, of what use to you is the preparation for war?"

These are the words of a free man who had carefully examined the thing and, as was natural, had discovered it. But if you look for it in a different place from where it is, what wonder if you never find it?”

© Epictetus, “Discourses”.

“Awaken; return to yourself. Now, no longer asleep, knowing they were only dreams, clear-headed again, treat everything around you as a dream.” © Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”.

🌿🌿🌿 “The fraction of infinity, of that vast abyss of time, allotted to each of us. Absorbed in an instant into eternity. The fraction of all substance, and all spirit. The fraction of the whole earth you crawl about on. Keep all that in mind, and don’t treat anything as important except doing what your nature demands, and accepting what Nature sends you.” © Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”.🌿🌿🌿

🌿🌿🌿No man fears Caesar himself, but he fears death, banishment, deprivation of his property, prison, and disgrace. Nor does any man love Caesar, unless Caesar is a person of great merit, but he loves wealth, the office of tribune, praetor or consul. When we love, and hate, and fear these things, it must be that those who have the power over them must be our masters.”🌿🌿🌿

© Epictetus, “Discourses”.

“Man, in every kind there is produced something which excels; in oxen, in dogs, in bees, in horses. Do not then say to that which excels, "Who, then, are you?" If you do, it will find a voice in some way and say, "I am such a thing as the purple in a garment: do not expect me to be like the others, or blame my nature that it has made me different from the rest of men.” © Epictetus, “Discourses”.

Reminded this excerpt from Epictetus:

 ‘I want to read Chrysippus’ treatise on the Liar.’ Is that your plan? Then go and jump in the lake and take your ridiculous plan with you. What good could come of it? Your unhappiness will persist the whole time you are reading it, and your anxiety will not abate a bit during a reading of the thing before an audience. Here’s how you behave: ‘Shall I read to you, brother, then you to me?’ ‘Man, it’s marvelous the way you write.’ ‘Well, it’s uncanny how you capture Xenophon’s style.’ ‘And you have caught Plato’s manner.’ ‘And you Antisthenes’!’ Then, having indulged each other in your fatuous fancies, you go back to your former habits: your desires and aversions are as they were, your impulses, designs and plans remain unchanged, you pray and care for the same old things. © Epictetus, “Discourses”.

Unpopular opinion of Marcus Aurelius – and highly thought-provoking:

“In comparing sins (the way people do) Theophrastus says that the ones committed out of desire are worse than the ones committed out of anger: which is good philosophy. The angry man seems to turn his back on reason out of a kind of pain and inner convulsion. But the man motivated by desire, who is mastered by pleasure, seems somehow more self-indulgent, less manly in his sins.

Theophrastus is right, and philosophically sound, to say that the sin committed out of pleasure deserves a harsher rebuke than the one committed out of pain. The angry man is more like a victim of wrongdoing, provoked by pain to anger. The other man rushes into wrongdoing on his own, moved to action by desire.” © Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations”.

🌿📜🌿 📜🌿 📜🌿 "If the storm should carry you away, let it carry off flesh, breath and all the rest, but not the mind. Which can’t be swept away. The lamp shines until it is put out, without losing its gleam, and yet in you it all gutters out so early — truth, justice, self-control.” © Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations". 🌿📜🌿 📜🌿 📜🌿

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WATCH UNTIL THE END! SENECA’s WISE REMINDER: "For What End Should I Toil? Lo, Today is the Last!" 

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