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That's why the philosophers warn us not to be satisfied with mere learning, but to add practice and then training. For as time passes we forget what we learned and end up doing the opposite, and hold opinions the opposite of what we should." --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.9.13-14" --
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Ryan Holiday |
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Atreus: Who would reject the flood of fortune's gifts? Thyestes: Anyone who has experienced how easily they flow back." --SENECA, THYESTES, 536"
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Ryan Holiday |
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How does your ruling reason manage itself? For in that is the key to everything. Whatever else remains, be it in the power of your choice or not, is but a corpse and smoke." --MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 12.33"
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Ryan Holiday |
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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 of 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.
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Ryan Holiday |
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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." --EPICTET..
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Ryan Holiday |
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There are two kinds of people in this world. The first looks at others who have accomplished things and thinks: Why them? Why not me? The other looks at those same people and thinks: If they can do it, why can't I?
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Ryan Holiday |
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There are two ways to be wealthy--to get everything you want or to want everything you have.
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wealth
satisfaction
wisdom
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Ryan Holiday |
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You say, good fortune used to meet you at every corner. But the fortunate person is the one who gives themselves a good fortune. And good fortunes are a well-tuned soul, good impulses and good actions." --MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.36"
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Ryan Holiday |
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August 21st DON'T BE MISERABLE IN ADVANCE "It's ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of misery, engulfed by anxiety that the things it desires might remain its own until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest--by longing for things to come it will lose the ability to enjoy present things." --SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 98.5b-6a The way we nervously worry about some looming bad news is strange ..
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Ryan Holiday |
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The diseases of the rational soul are long-standing and hardened vices, such as greed and ambition--they have put the soul in a straitjacket and have begun to be permanent evils inside it. To put it briefly, this sickness is an unrelenting distortion of judgment, so things that are only mildly desirable are vigorously sought after." --SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 75.11"
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Ryan Holiday |
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Reflect, then," he said, "that your ancestors set up those trophies, not that you may gaze at them in wonder, but that you may also imitate the virtues of the men who set them up."
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Ryan Holiday |
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cda5c8c
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Every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking, and running by running ... therefore, if you want to do something make a habit of it, if you don't want to do that, don't, but make a habit of something else instead. The same principle is at work in our state of mind. When you get angry, you've not only experienced that evil, but you've also reinforced a bad habit, adding fuel to the fire." ..
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Ryan Holiday |
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You can take the bite out of any tough situation by bringing a calm mind to it. By considering it and meditating on it in advance.
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Ryan Holiday |
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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"
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Ryan Holiday |
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Show me that the good life doesn't consist in its length, but in its use, and that it is possible--no, entirely too common--for a person who has had a long life to have lived too little." --SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 49.10b"
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Ryan Holiday |
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cb0d944
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In outer space you develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, 'Look at that, you son of a bitch.
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Ryan Holiday |
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Then what makes a beautiful human being? Isn't it the presence of human excellence? Young friend, if you wish to be beautiful, then work diligently at human excellence. And what is that? Observe those whom you praise without prejudice. The just or the unjust? The just. The even-tempered or the undisciplined? The even-tempered. The self-controlled or the uncontrolled? The self-controlled. In making yourself that kind of person, you will beco..
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Ryan Holiday |
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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 of 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, DISCO..
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Ryan Holiday |
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Show me someone sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and happy, exiled and happy, disgraced and happy. Show me! By God, how much I'd like to see a Stoic. But since you can't show me someone that perfectly formed, at least show me someone actively forming themselves so, inclined in this way.... Show me!" --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.19.24-25a, 28"
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Ryan Holiday |
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if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
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Ryan Holiday |
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Our ambition should not be to win, then, but to play with our full effort.
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Ryan Holiday |
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We don't abandon our pursuits because we despair of ever perfecting them." --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.2.37b"
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Ryan Holiday |
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First, you ought to live your own life in such a way that it doesn't negatively impose on others. Second, you have to be open-minded and accepting enough to let others do the same. Can you do that? Even when you really, really disagree with the choices they're making? Can you understand that their life is their business and yours is your own? And that you've got plenty to wrestle with yourself without bothering anyone else?
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Ryan Holiday |
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In your actions, don't procrastinate. In your conversations, don't confuse. In your thoughts, don't wander. In your soul, don't be passive or aggressive. In your life, don't be all about business." --MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.51"
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Ryan Holiday |
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we all thought that money would be the answer, that success was the highest prize, that the undying love of a beautiful person would finally make us feel warm inside.
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Ryan Holiday |
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So if you need an extra boost to get out of bed this morning, if you need something more than caffeine can offer, use this. People are depending on you. Your purpose is to help us render this great work together. And we're waiting and excited for you to show up.
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Ryan Holiday |
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Philosophy calls for simple living, but not for penance--it's quite possible to be simple without being crude.
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Ryan Holiday |
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No need to be too hard on yourself. Hold yourself to a higher standard but not an impossible one. And forgive yourself if and when you slip up.
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Ryan Holiday |
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At the end of a frustrating exchange, you might find yourself thinking, Ugh, this person is such an idiot. Or asking, Why can't they just do things right? But not everyone has had the advantages that you've had
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Ryan Holiday |
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The more forgiving and tolerant you can be of others--the more you can be aware of your various privileges and advantages--the more helpful and patient you will be.
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Ryan Holiday |
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of all the avenues for curing our negative characteristics, philosophy has existed the longest and helped the most people
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Ryan Holiday |
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In struggling with his unfortunate fate, Demosthenes found his true calling: He would be the voice of Athens, its great speaker and conscience. He would be successful precisely because of what he'd been through and how he'd reacted to it. He had channeled his rage and pain into his training, and then later into his speeches, fueling it all with a kind of fierceness and power that could be neither matched nor resisted.
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Ryan Holiday |
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If you need help, comrade, just ask.
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Ryan Holiday |
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Remember, "zealot" is just a nice way to say "crazy person."
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Ryan Holiday |
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How beautifully Plato put it. Whenever you want to talk about people, it's best to take a bird's-eye view and see everything all at once--of gatherings, armies, farms, weddings and divorces, births and deaths, noisy courtrooms or silent spaces, every foreign people, holidays, memorials, markets--all blended together and arranged in a pairing of opposites." --MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 7.48"
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Ryan Holiday |
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We like to say that we don't get to choose our parents, that they were given by chance--yet we can truly choose whose children we'd like to be." --SENECA"
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Ryan Holiday |
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Where is Good? In our reasoned choices. Where is Evil? In our reasoned choices. Where is that which is neither Good nor Evil? In the things outside of our own reasoned choice." --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.16.1"
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Ryan Holiday |
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We are prepared for failure and ready for success.
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Ryan Holiday |
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Focusing exclusively on what is in our power magnifies and enhances our power. But every ounce of energy directed at things we can't actually influence is wasted--self-indulgent and self-destructive. So much power--ours, and other people's--is frittered away in this manner.
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Ryan Holiday |
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This is why we shouldn't listen too closely to what other people say (or to what the voice in our head says, either). We'll find ourselves erring on the side of accomplishing nothing.
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Ryan Holiday |
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every soul is deprived of truth against its will. The same holds true for justice, self-control, goodwill to others, and every similar virtue.
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Ryan Holiday |
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That's Stoic joy--the joy that comes from purpose, excellence, and duty. It's a serious thing--far more serious than a smile or a chipper voice.
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Ryan Holiday |
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Who wants to be the person who can never let go? Is there so little meaning in your life that your only pursuit is work until you're eventually carted off in a coffin? Take pride in your work. But it is not all.
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Ryan Holiday |
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5645c1d
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There was always the allure of another, better house. There were always distractions, always so many things to do--and the writer's block and insecurity that plagues creative types traveled with him wherever he went.
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Ryan Holiday |