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