April 30th Reading from The Daily Stoic - What Is In Keeping With Your Character?

"Just as what is considered rational or irrational differs for each person, in the same way 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, In sorting this out, we don't simply rely on our estimate of the value of external things, but also apply the rule of what is in keeping with one's character."

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.2.5-7

NOTE: It seems like Epictetus is arguing for moral relativism here. I am certain that he is not, really. He is saying that our ideas of good and evil are relative, but that this is why we need to study, to get at the reality behind our ideas.

April 29th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Washing Away the Dust of Life

"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, Meditations, 7.47

April 28th Reading from The Daily Stoic - What Makes You A Servant

"Tantalus: The highest power is -
 Thyestes: No power, if you desire nothing."

~ Seneca, Thyestes, 440

April 27th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Turn It Inside Out

"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. Remembered in some corner of these parts, and even there not in the same way by all, or even by one. And the whole earth is but a mere speck."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.21

April 26th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Things Happen In Training

"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. You should act this way with all things in life. We should give a pass to many things with our fellow trainees. For, as I've said, it's possible to avoid without suspicion or hate."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.20

April 25th Reading from The Daily Stoic - There's Nothing Wrong With Being Wrong

"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, Meditations, 6.21

April 24th Reading from The Daily Stoic - A Productive Use For Contempt

"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 sheep's wool dyed in a bit of blood from a shellfish; or of sex, that it is only rubbing private parts together followed by a spasmic discharge - in the same way our impressions grab actual events and permeate them, so we see them as they really are."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.13

April 23rd Reading from The Daily Stoic - The Mind Is All Yours

"You have been formed of three parts - body, breath, and mind. Of these, the first two are yours insofar as they are only in your care. The third alone is truly yours."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.3

April 22nd Reading from The Daily Stoic - The Marks of a Rational Person

"These are the characteristics of the rational soul: self-awareness, self-examination, and self-determination. It reaps its own harvest . . . It succeeds in its own purpose . . . "

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.1-2

April 21st Reading from The Daily Stoic - Don't Let Your Attention Slide

"When you let your attention slide for a bit, don't think you will get back a grip on it whenever you wish - instead, bear in mind that because of today's mistake everything that follows will be necessarily worse . . . Is it possible to be free from error? Not by any means, but it is possible to be a person always stretching to avoid error. For we must be content to at least escape a few mistakes by never letting our attention slide."

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 4.12.1; 19

April 20th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Real Good Is Simple

"Here's a way to think about what the masses regard as being 'good' things. If you would first start by setting your mind upon things that are unquestionably good - wisdom, self-control, justice, courage - with this preconception you'll no longer be able to listen to the popular refrain that there are too many good things to experience in a lifetime."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.12

April 19th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Our Sphere of Impulses

"Epictetus says we must discover the missing art of assent and pay special attention to the sphere of our impulses - that they are subject to reservation, to the common good, and that they are in proportion to actual worth."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.37

April 18th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Opinions Are Like . . .

"What is bad luck? Opinion. What are conflict, dispute, blame, accusation, irreverence, and frivolity? They are all opinions, and more than that, they are opinions that lie outside our own reasoned choice, presented as if they were good or evil. Let a person shift their opinions only to what belongs in the field of their own choice, and I guarantee that person will have peace of mind, whatever is happening around them."

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.3.18b-19

April 17th Reading from The Daily Stoic- No Harm, No Foul

"Do away with the opinion I am harmed, and the harm is cast away too. Do away with being harmed, and harm disappears."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.7

April 16th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Observe Cause and Effect

"Pay close attention in conversation to what is being said, and to what follows from any action. In the action, immediately look for the target, in words, listen closely to what's being signaled."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.4

April 15th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Pay Your Taxes

"Nothing will ever befall me that I will receive with gloom or a bad disposition, I will pay my taxes gladly. Now, all the things which cause complaint or dread are like the taxes of life - things from which, my dear Lucilius, you should never hope for exemption or seek escape."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 96.2

April 14th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Becoming an Expert in What Matters

"Believe me, it's better to produce the balance-sheet of your own life than that of the grain market."

~ Seneca, On the Brevity of Life, 18.3b

April 13th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Less Is More

"Don't act grudgingly, selfishly, without due diligence, or to be a contrarian. Don't overdress your thought in fine language. Don't be a person of too many words and too many deeds . . . Be cheerful, not wanting outside help or the relief others might bring. A person needs to stand on their own, not be propped up."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.5

April 12th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Reject Tantalizing Gifts

"Atreus: Who would reject the flood of fortune's gifts?
 Thyestes: Anyone who has experienced how easily they flow back."

~ Seneca, Thyestes, 536

April 11th Reading from The Daily Stoic - If You Want To Learn, Be Humble

"Throw out your conceited opinions, for it is impossible for a person to begin to learn what he thinks he already knows."

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 2.17.1

April 10th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Judgments Cause Disturbance

"It isn't the events themselves that disturb people, but only their judgments about them."

~ Epictetus, Enchiridion, 5

April 9th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Test Your Impressions

"From the very beginning, make it your practice to say to every harsh impression, 'you are an impression and not at all what you appear to be.' Next, examine and test it by the rules you possess, the first and greatest of which is this - whether it belongs to the things in our control or not in our control, and if the latter, be prepared to respond, 'It is nothing to me.'"

~ Epictetus, Enchiridion, 1.5

"Dis Superis Par"

     Today, my reading from Brevissima was #213 from that collection, titled "Dis Superis Par" ("Equal to the Gods Above") by the editor. The poem comes from Urbano Appendini (1777-1834), De Educatione Disticha ("Couplets About Education"). The Latin text reads:

Qui sollers facienda facit vitandaque vitat,

Hunc ego dis superis arbitror esse parem.

     I can relate! Roughly rendered in English, this is:

"An experienced man who does what needs to be done and avoids what must be avoided,

I judge that man to be the equal of the gods above."

     As I stumble through my day as the father of four boys (17, 15, 4, and 2), trying to get even one thing done every day that must be done and trying to avoid parenting perils (in vain, all in vain!), I concede that the thought of anyone who ever gets anything done seems to be the equivalent of being godlike to me . . . 

April 8th Reading from The Daily Stoic - The Cost of Accepting Counterfeits

"When it comes to money, where we feel our clear interest, we have an entire art where the tester uses many means to discover the worth . . . just as we give great attention to judging things that might steer us badly. But when it comes to our own ruling principle, we yawn and doze off, accepting any appearance that flashes by without counting the cost."

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.20.8; 11

April 7th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Expect to Change Your Opinions

"There are two things that must be rooted out in human beings - arrogant opinion and mistrust. Arrogant opinion expects that there is nothing further needed, and mistrust assumes that under the torrent of circumstance there can be no happiness."

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.14.8

April 6th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Prepare Yourself for Negativity

"When you first rise in the morning, tell yourself: I will encounter busybodies, ingrates, egomaniacs, liars, the jealous and cranks. They are all stricken with these afflictions because they don't know the difference between good and evil. Because I have understood the beauty of good and the ugliness of evil, I know that these wrong-doers are still akin to me . . . and that none can do me harm, or implicate me in ugliness - nor can I be angry at my relatives or hate them. For we are made for cooperation."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.1

April 5th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Trust But Verify

"First off, don't let the force of the impression carry you away. Say to it, 'hold up a bit and let me see who you are and where you are from - let me put you to the test' . . . "

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 2.18.24

April 4th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Don't Let This Go To Your Head

"Make sure you're not made 'Emperor,' avoid that imperial stain. It can happen to you, so keep yourself simple, good, pure, saintly, plain, a friend of justice, god-fearing, gracious, affectionate, and strong for your proper work. Fight to remain the person that philosophy wished to make you. Revere the gods, and look after each other. Life is short - the fruit of this life is a good character and acts for the common good,"

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.30

April 3rd Reading from The Daily Stoic - Deceived and Divided

"Circumstances are what deceive us - you must be discerning in them. We embrace evil before good. We desire the opposite of what we once desired. Our prayers are at war with our prayers, our plans with our plans."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 45.6

April 2nd Reading from The Daily Stoic - Be Wary of What You Let In

"Drama, combat, terror, numbness, and subservience - every day these things wipe out your sacred principles, whenever your mind entertains them uncritically or lets them slip in."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 10.9

April 1st Reading from The Daily Stoic - The Color of Your Thoughts

"Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.16