Atharva31/Quotes_Collection · Datasets at Hugging Face

Unnamed: 0 int64 0 7.68k	quote stringlengths 1 3.91k	tags stringclasses 3 values
7,597	“You should, I need hardly say, live in such a way that there is nothing which you could not as easily tell your enemy as keep to yourself.”	stoicism
7,567	“Most people have given back to life the power to make themselves happy.”	stoicism
7,060	“We are all talented at coming up with plausible excuses.”	stoicism
7,494	“Telling some people not to waste time is a waste of time.”	stoicism
6,934	“The afternoon presents an intersection where the momentum that we have gained in the morning may be either sustained or lost – where we can choose to either build on the morning’s foundations and embrace our challenges, or allow the stress and frustration of the day to ruin all our hard work.”	stoicism
6,774	“Warriors should suffer their pain silently.”	stoicism
7,620	“Man is mostly a collection of emotions, most of which he would do better not to be feeling.”	stoicism
7,148	“Marcus wept when he was told that his favorite tutor had passed away. We know that he cried one day in court, when he was overseeing a case and the attorney mentioned the countless souls who perished in the plague still ravaging Rome. We can imagine Marcus cried many other times. This was a man who was betrayed by one of his most trusted generals. This was a man who one day lost his wife of thirty-five years. This was a man who lost eight children, including all but one of his sons. Marcus didn’t weep because he was weak. He didn’t weep because he was un-Stoic. He cried because he was human. Because these very painful experiences made him sad. “Neither philosophy nor empire,” Antoninus said sympathetically as he let his son sob, “takes away natural feeling.” So Marcus Aurelius must have lost his temper on occasion, or he never would have had cause to write in his Meditations.”	stoicism
6,847	“Forever seeking, forever moving forward. To strive, to struggle.”	stoicism
7,179	“A millionaire who is a minimalist feels and is a trillion times richer than billionaires who are not minimalists.”	stoicism
7,343	“Soon earth will cover us all. Then in time earth, too, will change; later, what issues from this change will itself in turn incessantly change, and so again will all that then takes its place, even unto the world's end. to let the mind dwell on these swiftly rolling billows of change and transformation is to know a contempt for all things mortal.”	stoicism
6,901	“Beware the folly of lending your focus to vain pursuits. Just as a river, when it is split into countless rivulets, loses its force and becomes but a whimper, a mind divided by trivial pursuits dissipates its strength. Focus, therefore, is not merely concentration, it is selection; not merely observation, it is dedication.”	stoicism
7,370	“Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party. Is anything brought around to you? Put out your hand and take your share with moderation. Does it pass by you? Don’t stop it. Is it not yet come? Don’t stretch your desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you. Do this with regard to children, to a wife, to public posts, to riches, and you will eventually be a worthy partner of the feasts of the gods. And if you don’t even take the things which are set before you, but are able even to reject them, then you will not only be a partner at the feasts of the gods, but also of their empire.”	stoicism
7,518	“We can always choose not what we see but how we look at what we see.”	stoicism
6,811	“If you want to make progress, put up with being perceived as ignorant or naive in worldly matters, don't aspire to a reputation for sagacity. If you do impress others as somebody, don't altogether believe it. You have to realize, it isn't easy to keep your will in agreement with nature, as well as externals. Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other.”	stoicism
6,858	“Lives such as yours—how true it is!—though they should exceed a thousand years, will contract into the smallest span: but those vices of yours will swallow up any amount of time. This length of time you have, that reason prolongs, however swift nature makes its sojourn, is bound to pass quickly through your fingers; for you do not grasp it, or seek to hold on to it, or try to delay the passing of the swiftest thing of all, but allow it to depart, as if it were something surplus to requirement and easily replaced.”	stoicism
7,171	“A family member is initially loved out of expectation … and is eventually loved out of habit.”	stoicism
7,065	“Fools are often unable to do what needs to be done, because they were doing, or are doing, what need not be done at that time … or at all.”	stoicism
7,609	“The Sage desires only one thing, virtue, and he is cautious about only one thing, vice. He is the same in every circumstance because what is most important lies within him, and not with external events, which are constantly changing.”	stoicism
7,064	“Hatred is as powerful an intoxicant as love.”	stoicism
7,385	“The second best thing to not chasing success is chasing success that was defined by you, not for you.”	stoicism
7,295	“When you are alone, you should call this tranquility and freedom and when you are with many you shouldn’t call this a crowd, or trouble or uneasiness but festival and company and contentedly accept it.”	stoicism
7,569	“Life takes from us only lives we were given by it.”	stoicism
7,460	“A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.”	stoicism
7,406	“We should not use philosophy like a herbal remedy, to be discarded when we're through. Rather, we must allow philosophy to remain with us, continually guarding our judgements throughout life, forming part of our daily regimen, like eating a nutritious diet or taking phisical exercise.”	stoicism
7,191	“Time and money are almost always saved to be wasted.”	stoicism
7,634	“How could I admit that the All-American Girl's force field of stoicism and self-reliance and do-unto-others-and-keep-smiling wasn't working, wasn't keeping pain and shame and powerlessness away? From a young age I had learned to get over - to cover my tracks emotionally, to hide or ignore my problems in the belief that they were mine alone to solve. So when exhilarating transgressions required getting over on authority figures, I knew how to do it. I was a great bluffer. And when common, everyday survival in prison required getting over, I could do that too. This is what was approvingly described by my fellow prisoners as 'street-smarts,' as in 'You wouldn't think it to look at her, but Piper's got street-smarts.”	stoicism
6,792	“Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realise the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.”	stoicism
7,344	“Let Nature make whatever use she pleases of matter, which is her own: lets us be cheerful and brave in the face of all, and consider that nothing of our own perishes. What is the duty of a good man? To offer himself to fate.”	stoicism
6,912	“A good story has no end, it continues being a part of reality well after its last point by forming a union with us.”	stoicism
7,434	“Once you start learning from your problems, you stop wishing for a life without problems.”	stoicism
6,914	“Birds weren’t given wings just to walk everywhere . . . and you weren’t born with resilience and a beautiful mind just to have an easy life.”	stoicism
6,994	“Every hour of the day, countless situations arise that call for advice, and for that advice we have to look to philosophy.”	stoicism
7,272	“I have, I hold whatever of mine I have ever had. There is no reason for you to suppose me conquered and yourself my conqueror. It is your fortune which has overcome mine. As for those fleeting possessions which change their owners, I know not where they are; what belongs to myself is with me, and ever will be.”	stoicism
7,590	“You have the power to strip away many superfluous troubles located wholly in your judgement, and to possess a large room for yourself embracing in thought the whole cosmos, to consider everlasting time, to think of the rapid change in the parts of each thing, of how short it is from birth until dissolution, and how the void before birth and that after dissolution are equally infinite.”	stoicism
7,385	“The second best thing to not chasing success is chasing success that was defined by you, not for you.”	stoicism
6,873	“For the military community, philosophy isn't something casually debated. But something that should be fully embodied in everyday thought and action, with the abandonment of all principles not shown practical in the most extreme of environments.”	stoicism
6,808	“Remember to act always as if you were at a symposium. When the food or drink comes around, reach out and take some politely; if it passes you by don't try pulling it back. And if it has not reached you yet, don't let your desire run ahead of you, be patient until your turn comes. Adopt a similar attitude with regard to children, wife, wealth and status, and in time, you will be entitled to dine with the gods. Go further and decline these goods even when they are on offer and you will have a share in the gods' power as well as their company. That is how Diogenes, Heraclitus and philosophers like them came to be called, and considered, divine.”	stoicism
6,967	“[A] man ought to be prepared in a manner for this also, to be able to be sufficient for himself and to be his own companion. [...] [S]o ought we also to be able to talk with ourselves, not to feel the want of others also, not to be unprovided with the means of passing our time; to observe the divine administration and the relation of ourselves to everything else; to consider how we formerly were affected toward things that happen and how at present; what are still the things which give us pain; how these also can be cured and how removed; if any things require improvement, to improve them according to reason.”	stoicism
7,415	“[T]he man who spends his time choosing one resort after another in a hunt for peace and quiet, will in every place he visits find something to prevent him from relaxing. The story is told that someone complained to Socrates that travelling abroad had never done him any good and received the reply: "What else can you expect, seeing that you always take yourself along with you when you go abroad?‟”	stoicism
7,348	“Some of those whose existence you wish could end now do not even know about your existence.”	stoicism
7,160	“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much… The life we receive is not short but we make it so”	stoicism
6,948	“By meditating on our thoughts, feelings, and desires, we are encouraging a sense of self-awareness and self-mastery. We observe the whimsical and impulsive movements of our mind without getting caught up in them, and in doing so we develop a greater understanding of ourselves.”	stoicism
7,323	“Change is not always a bad thing: it sometimes takes the form of progress. And is not always a good thing: it sometimes takes the form of regress.”	stoicism
7,217	“You have two essential tasks in life: to be a good person and to pursue the occupation that you love. Everything else is a waste of energy and a squandering of your potential.”	stoicism
7,269	“The media’s goal is to literally challenge your ability to be still. A tough American, intent on improving upon their current self, is not tricked into an emotional reaction by these headlines. You do not write an angry tweet, you do not hurl an insult. You are cool and measured, and skeptical. You are curious what the agenda of the journalist might be and what facts or context they might be leaving out. You seek out a different story on the same topic from an opposing view, and you find out that many of the claims made in the original story were convincingly debunked. And just like that, you are a Zen master of stillness and Stoicism.”	stoicism
6,784	“How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.”	stoicism
7,392	“Life is 99 percent attitude. Yet for the majority of people, it is the remaining one percent that dominates 99 percent of their life.”	stoicism
7,438	“Independence and unvarying reliability, and to pay attention to nothing, no matter how fleetingly, except the logos. And to be the same in all circumstances—intense pain, the loss of a child, chronic illness. And to see clearly, from his example, that a man can show both strength and flexibility. His patience in teaching. And to have seen someone who clearly viewed his expertise and ability as a teacher as the humblest of virtues. And to have learned how to accept favors from friends without losing your self-respect or appearing ungrateful. On Apolonius”	stoicism
7,058	“Even if you had a lot of life left to live, you would need to parcel out your time sparingly so as to have enough for necessities. As it is, with time in such short supply, what madness it is to learn things that are superfluous.”	stoicism
7,247	“You can look unhappy but feel the opposite. Or vice versa.”	stoicism
7,000	“Will you never come to a realisation of who you are, what you have been born for and the purpose for which the gift of vision was made in our case?”	stoicism
7,189	“To complain about life is to complain about being alive.”	stoicism
6,926	“Speak the truth and above all claim the things you want, at least to yourself.”	stoicism
7,319	“The universe is change, and life mere opinion.”	stoicism
7,210	“Sex for pleasure is chewing gum for genitals.”	stoicism
6,866	“Wir müssen uns weigern, die Karten, die uns ausgeteilt wurden, über unser Wohlbefinden entscheiden zu lassen.”	stoicism
7,180	“Complaining about a person is way less annoying when we complain to that person.”	stoicism
7,058	“Even if you had a lot of life left to live, you would need to parcel out your time sparingly so as to have enough for necessities. As it is, with time in such short supply, what madness it is to learn things that are superfluous.”	stoicism
7,023	“Where is the harm or surprise in the ignorant behaving as the ignorant do?”	stoicism
6,965	“Thinking of departed friends is to me something sweet and mellow. For when I had them with me it was with the feeling that I was going to lose them, and now that I have lost them I keep the feeling that I have them with me still.”	stoicism
7,367	“Meditation can make an hour feel slightly longer … than a sneeze.”	stoicism
7,603	“The man who looks for the morrow without worrying over it knows a peaceful independence and a happiness beyond all others. Whoever has said, "I have lived' receives a windfall every day he gets up in the morning.”	stoicism
7,291	“However one may interpret this culturally, the upshot is the same: people carry within them a great number of wishes to which they react passively and which they hide. Stoicism, in our day, is not strength to overcome wishes, but to hide them. To a patient who, let us say, is interminably rationalizing and justifying this and that, balancing one thing against another as though life were a tremendous market place where all the business is done on paper and tickertape and there are never any goods , I sometimes have the inclination in psychotherapy to shout out, “Don't you ever want anything?” But I don't cry out, for it is not difficult to see that on some level the patient does want a good deal; the trouble is he has formulated and reformulated it, until it is the “rattling of dry bones,” as Eliot puts it. Tendencies have become endemic in our culture for our denial of wishes to be rationalized and accepted with the belief that this denial of the wish will result in its being fulfilled. And whether the reader would disagree with me on this or that detail, our psychological problem is the same: it is necessary for us to help the patient achieve some emotional viability and honesty by bringing out his wishes and his capacity to wish. This is not the end of therapy but it is an essential starting point.”	stoicism
7,286	“Destroying your mirrors leaves your facial blemishes intact.”	stoicism
7,404	“[E]verything which went beyond our actual needs was just so much unnecessary weight, a burden to the man who had to carry it.”	stoicism
7,611	“Some of the best things that have ever happened to us wouldn’t have happened to us, if it weren’t for some of the worst things that have ever happened to us.”	stoicism
7,634	“How could I admit that the All-American Girl's force field of stoicism and self-reliance and do-unto-others-and-keep-smiling wasn't working, wasn't keeping pain and shame and powerlessness away? From a young age I had learned to get over - to cover my tracks emotionally, to hide or ignore my problems in the belief that they were mine alone to solve. So when exhilarating transgressions required getting over on authority figures, I knew how to do it. I was a great bluffer. And when common, everyday survival in prison required getting over, I could do that too. This is what was approvingly described by my fellow prisoners as 'street-smarts,' as in 'You wouldn't think it to look at her, but Piper's got street-smarts.”	stoicism
6,887	“If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity … you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge—a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity. Your attitude towards it will be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral.”	stoicism
7,575	“The worst that can happen to anyone will happen to everyone.”	stoicism
7,678	“The wife of a junior officer cooped up in a horrible canvas partition in steerage for five months wrote: "I had enjoyed much peace there in the absence of every comfort, even of such as are now enjoyed in jail. I used to say that there were four privations in my situation - fire, water, earth and air. No fire to warm oneself on the coldest day, no water to drink but what was tainted, no earth to set the foot on, and scarcely any air to breathe. Yet, with all these miserable circumstances, we spent many a happy hour by candlelight in that wretched cabin whilst I sewed and he read the Bible to me.”	stoicism
6,928	“me dulcis saturet quies; obscuro positus loco leni perfruar otio, nullis nota Quiritibus aetas per tacitum fluat. sic cum transierint mei nullo cum strepitu dies. plebeius moriar senex. illi mors gravis incubat qui, notus nimis omnibus, ignotus moritur sibi.”	stoicism
7,584	“Being a stoic does not mean being a robot. Being a stoic means remaining calm both at the height of pleasure and the depths of misery.”	stoicism
6,997	“If what charms you is nothing but abstract principles, sit down and turn them over quietly in your mind: but never dub yourself a Philosopher, nor suffer others to call you so. Say rather: He is in error; for my desires, my impulses are unaltered. I give in my adhesion to what I did before; nor has my mode of dealing with the things of sense undergone any change.”	stoicism
7,646	“Sometimes in life we must fight not only without fear, but also without hope.”	stoicism
6,985	“Every life without exception is a short one.”	stoicism
7,465	“The mind is inclined to zoom in on your problem, or few problems, to an extend that you cannot see your many blessings.”	stoicism
6,784	“How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.”	stoicism
6,926	“Speak the truth and above all claim the things you want, at least to yourself.”	stoicism
7,417	“Many are the things that have caused terror during the night and been turned into matters of laughter with the coming of daylight.”	stoicism
7,030	“... we find a complete contradiction in our wishing to live without suffering, a contradiction that is therefore implied by the frequently used phrase “blessed life.” This will certainly be clear to the person who has fully grasped my discussion that follows. This contradiction is revealed in this ethic of pure reason itself by the fact that the Stoic is compelled to insert a recommendation of suicide in his guide to the blissful life (for this is what his ethics always remains). This is like the costly phial of poison to be found among the magnificent ornaments and apparel of oriental despots, and is for the case where the sufferings of the body, incapable of being philosophized away by any principles and syllogisms, are paramount and incurable. Thus its sole purpose, namely blessedness, is frustrated, and nothing remains as a means of escape from pain except death. But then death must be taken with unconcern, just as is any other medicine. Here a marked contrast is evident between the Stoic ethics and all those other ethical systems mentioned above. These ethical systems make virtue directly and in itself the aim and object, even with the most grievous sufferings, and will not allow a man to end his life in order to escape from suffering. But not one of them knew how to express the true reason for rejecting suicide, but they laboriously collected fictitious arguments of every kind. This true reason will appear in the fourth book in connexion with our discussion. But the above-mentioned contrast reveals and confirms just that essential difference to be found in the fundamental principle between the Stoa, really only a special form of eudaemonism, and the doctrines just mentioned, although both often agree in their results, and are apparently related. But the above-mentioned inner contradiction, with which the Stoic ethics is affected even in its fundamental idea, further shows itself in the fact that its ideal, the Stoic sage as represented by this ethical system, could never obtain life or inner poetical truth, but remains a wooden, stiff lay-figure with whom one can do nothing. He himself does not know where to go with his wisdom, and his perfect peace, contentment, and blessedness directly contradict the nature of mankind, and do not enable us to arrive at any perceptive representation thereof. Compared with him, how entirely different appear the overcomers of the world and voluntary penitents, who are revealed to us, and are actually produced, by the wisdom of India; how different even the Saviour of Christianity, that excellent form full of the depth of life, of the greatest poetical truth and highest significance, who stands before us with perfect virtue, holiness, and sublimity, yet in a state of supreme suffering.”	stoicism
6,926	“Speak the truth and above all claim the things you want, at least to yourself.”	stoicism
6,816	“The first and most important field of philosophy is the application of principles such as “Do not lie.” Next come the proofs, such as why we should not lie. The third field supports and articulates the proofs, by asking, for example, “How does this prove it? What exactly is a proof, what is logical inference, what is contradiction, what is truth, what is falsehood?” Thus, the third field is necessary because of the second, and the second because of the first. The most important, though, the one that should occupy most of our time, is the first. But we do just the opposite. We are preoccupied with the third field and give that all our attention, passing the first by altogether. The result is that we lie – but have no difficulty proving why we shouldn’t.”	stoicism
7,093	“Our rationality is a visitor.”	stoicism
7,613	“Sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy.”	stoicism
7,454	“Love me for my affection, love me even for my weakness; I am satisfied myself. I prefer my feelings to all the fine sentiments of Seneca or Epictetus.”	stoicism
6,899	“The act of focusing is not simply the mental equivalent of gazing intently at an object. It is a confluence, a harmonious marriage of mind, heart, and will, an alignment akin to a troupe of actors on a stage, each playing their part, but all moving in harmony towards the climax of the play. This is the essence of true focus.”	stoicism
7,180	“Complaining about a person is way less annoying when we complain to that person.”	stoicism
6,864	“We can’t choose what the world throws at us, but we can control how we react to it, and that makes all the difference.”	stoicism
7,396	“Stoicism is Buddhism without the dogma.”	stoicism
7,524	“We ought to be thankful not only for what we have but also for what we do not have.”	stoicism
7,061	“Being in a hurry gives us the illusion of doubling the length of every second.”	stoicism
7,563	“The fact that our minds are problem-solving machines says a lot about the nature of life.”	stoicism
7,580	“Soon, you will have forgotten everything. Soon, everybody will have forgotten you.”	stoicism
7,052	“We are not the first Who with best meaning have incurred the worst. For thee, oppressèd king, I am cast down. Myself could else outfrown false Fortune’s frown.”	stoicism
6,838	“It is quite possible to be a good man without anyone realizing it.”	stoicism
7,429	“Zeno is our friend but truth is an even greater friend.”	stoicism
6,780	“People hide their truest nature. I understood that; I even applauded it. What sort of world would it be if people bled all over the sidewalks, if they wept under trees, smacked whomever they despised, kissed strangers, revealed themselves?”	stoicism
7,023	“Where is the harm or surprise in the ignorant behaving as the ignorant do?”	stoicism
7,611	“Some of the best things that have ever happened to us wouldn’t have happened to us, if it weren’t for some of the worst things that have ever happened to us.”	stoicism

7,597

“You should, I need hardly say, live in such a way that there is nothing which you could not as easily tell your enemy as keep to yourself.”

stoicism

7,567

“Most people have given back to life the power to make themselves happy.”

stoicism

7,060

“We are all talented at coming up with plausible excuses.”

stoicism

7,494

“Telling some people not to waste time is a waste of time.”

stoicism

6,934

“The afternoon presents an intersection where the momentum that we have gained in the morning may be either sustained or lost – where we can choose to either build on the morning’s foundations and embrace our challenges, or allow the stress and frustration of the day to ruin all our hard work.”

stoicism

6,774

“Warriors should suffer their pain silently.”

stoicism

7,620

“Man is mostly a collection of emotions, most of which he would do better not to be feeling.”

stoicism

7,148

“Marcus wept when he was told that his favorite tutor had passed away. We know that he cried one day in court, when he was overseeing a case and the attorney mentioned the countless souls who perished in the plague still ravaging Rome. We can imagine Marcus cried many other times. This was a man who was betrayed by one of his most trusted generals. This was a man who one day lost his wife of thirty-five years. This was a man who lost eight children, including all but one of his sons. Marcus didn’t weep because he was weak. He didn’t weep because he was un-Stoic. He cried because he was human. Because these very painful experiences made him sad. “Neither philosophy nor empire,” Antoninus said sympathetically as he let his son sob, “takes away natural feeling.” So Marcus Aurelius must have lost his temper on occasion, or he never would have had cause to write in his Meditations.”

stoicism

6,847

“Forever seeking, forever moving forward. To strive, to struggle.”

stoicism

7,179

“A millionaire who is a minimalist feels and is a trillion times richer than billionaires who are not minimalists.”

stoicism

7,343

“Soon earth will cover us all. Then in time earth, too, will change; later, what issues from this change will itself in turn incessantly change, and so again will all that then takes its place, even unto the world's end. to let the mind dwell on these swiftly rolling billows of change and transformation is to know a contempt for all things mortal.”

stoicism

6,901

“Beware the folly of lending your focus to vain pursuits. Just as a river, when it is split into countless rivulets, loses its force and becomes but a whimper, a mind divided by trivial pursuits dissipates its strength. Focus, therefore, is not merely concentration, it is selection; not merely observation, it is dedication.”

stoicism

7,370

“Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party. Is anything brought around to you? Put out your hand and take your share with moderation. Does it pass by you? Don’t stop it. Is it not yet come? Don’t stretch your desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you. Do this with regard to children, to a wife, to public posts, to riches, and you will eventually be a worthy partner of the feasts of the gods. And if you don’t even take the things which are set before you, but are able even to reject them, then you will not only be a partner at the feasts of the gods, but also of their empire.”

stoicism

7,518

“We can always choose not what we see but how we look at what we see.”

stoicism

6,811

“If you want to make progress, put up with being perceived as ignorant or naive in worldly matters, don't aspire to a reputation for sagacity. If you do impress others as somebody, don't altogether believe it. You have to realize, it isn't easy to keep your will in agreement with nature, as well as externals. Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other.”

stoicism

6,858

“Lives such as yours—how true it is!—though they should exceed a thousand years, will contract into the smallest span: but those vices of yours will swallow up any amount of time. This length of time you have, that reason prolongs, however swift nature makes its sojourn, is bound to pass quickly through your fingers; for you do not grasp it, or seek to hold on to it, or try to delay the passing of the swiftest thing of all, but allow it to depart, as if it were something surplus to requirement and easily replaced.”

stoicism

7,171

“A family member is initially loved out of expectation … and is eventually loved out of habit.”

stoicism

7,065

“Fools are often unable to do what needs to be done, because they were doing, or are doing, what need not be done at that time … or at all.”

stoicism

7,609

“The Sage desires only one thing, virtue, and he is cautious about only one thing, vice. He is the same in every circumstance because what is most important lies within him, and not with external events, which are constantly changing.”

stoicism

7,064

“Hatred is as powerful an intoxicant as love.”

stoicism

7,385

“The second best thing to not chasing success is chasing success that was defined by you, not for you.”

stoicism

7,295

“When you are alone, you should call this tranquility and freedom and when you are with many you shouldn’t call this a crowd, or trouble or uneasiness but festival and company and contentedly accept it.”

stoicism

7,569

“Life takes from us only lives we were given by it.”

stoicism

7,460

“A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.”

stoicism

7,406

“We should not use philosophy like a herbal remedy, to be discarded when we're through. Rather, we must allow philosophy to remain with us, continually guarding our judgements throughout life, forming part of our daily regimen, like eating a nutritious diet or taking phisical exercise.”

stoicism

7,191

“Time and money are almost always saved to be wasted.”

stoicism

7,634

“How could I admit that the All-American Girl's force field of stoicism and self-reliance and do-unto-others-and-keep-smiling wasn't working, wasn't keeping pain and shame and powerlessness away? From a young age I had learned to get over - to cover my tracks emotionally, to hide or ignore my problems in the belief that they were mine alone to solve. So when exhilarating transgressions required getting over on authority figures, I knew how to do it. I was a great bluffer. And when common, everyday survival in prison required getting over, I could do that too. This is what was approvingly described by my fellow prisoners as 'street-smarts,' as in 'You wouldn't think it to look at her, but Piper's got street-smarts.”

stoicism

6,792

“Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realise the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.”

stoicism

7,344

“Let Nature make whatever use she pleases of matter, which is her own: lets us be cheerful and brave in the face of all, and consider that nothing of our own perishes. What is the duty of a good man? To offer himself to fate.”

stoicism

6,912

“A good story has no end, it continues being a part of reality well after its last point by forming a union with us.”

stoicism

7,434

“Once you start learning from your problems, you stop wishing for a life without problems.”

stoicism

6,914

“Birds weren’t given wings just to walk everywhere . . . and you weren’t born with resilience and a beautiful mind just to have an easy life.”

stoicism

6,994

“Every hour of the day, countless situations arise that call for advice, and for that advice we have to look to philosophy.”

stoicism

7,272

“I have, I hold whatever of mine I have ever had. There is no reason for you to suppose me conquered and yourself my conqueror. It is your fortune which has overcome mine. As for those fleeting possessions which change their owners, I know not where they are; what belongs to myself is with me, and ever will be.”

stoicism

7,590

“You have the power to strip away many superfluous troubles located wholly in your judgement, and to possess a large room for yourself embracing in thought the whole cosmos, to consider everlasting time, to think of the rapid change in the parts of each thing, of how short it is from birth until dissolution, and how the void before birth and that after dissolution are equally infinite.”

stoicism

7,385

“The second best thing to not chasing success is chasing success that was defined by you, not for you.”

stoicism

6,873

“For the military community, philosophy isn't something casually debated. But something that should be fully embodied in everyday thought and action, with the abandonment of all principles not shown practical in the most extreme of environments.”

stoicism

6,808

“Remember to act always as if you were at a symposium. When the food or drink comes around, reach out and take some politely; if it passes you by don't try pulling it back. And if it has not reached you yet, don't let your desire run ahead of you, be patient until your turn comes. Adopt a similar attitude with regard to children, wife, wealth and status, and in time, you will be entitled to dine with the gods. Go further and decline these goods even when they are on offer and you will have a share in the gods' power as well as their company. That is how Diogenes, Heraclitus and philosophers like them came to be called, and considered, divine.”

stoicism

6,967

“[A] man ought to be prepared in a manner for this also, to be able to be sufficient for himself and to be his own companion. [...] [S]o ought we also to be able to talk with ourselves, not to feel the want of others also, not to be unprovided with the means of passing our time; to observe the divine administration and the relation of ourselves to everything else; to consider how we formerly were affected toward things that happen and how at present; what are still the things which give us pain; how these also can be cured and how removed; if any things require improvement, to improve them according to reason.”

stoicism

7,415

“[T]he man who spends his time choosing one resort after another in a hunt for peace and quiet, will in every place he visits find something to prevent him from relaxing. The story is told that someone complained to Socrates that travelling abroad had never done him any good and received the reply: "What else can you expect, seeing that you always take yourself along with you when you go abroad?‟”

stoicism

7,348

“Some of those whose existence you wish could end now do not even know about your existence.”

stoicism

7,160

“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much… The life we receive is not short but we make it so”

stoicism

6,948

“By meditating on our thoughts, feelings, and desires, we are encouraging a sense of self-awareness and self-mastery. We observe the whimsical and impulsive movements of our mind without getting caught up in them, and in doing so we develop a greater understanding of ourselves.”

stoicism

7,323

“Change is not always a bad thing: it sometimes takes the form of progress. And is not always a good thing: it sometimes takes the form of regress.”

stoicism

7,217

“You have two essential tasks in life: to be a good person and to pursue the occupation that you love. Everything else is a waste of energy and a squandering of your potential.”

stoicism

7,269

“The media’s goal is to literally challenge your ability to be still. A tough American, intent on improving upon their current self, is not tricked into an emotional reaction by these headlines. You do not write an angry tweet, you do not hurl an insult. You are cool and measured, and skeptical. You are curious what the agenda of the journalist might be and what facts or context they might be leaving out. You seek out a different story on the same topic from an opposing view, and you find out that many of the claims made in the original story were convincingly debunked. And just like that, you are a Zen master of stillness and Stoicism.”

stoicism

6,784

“How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.”

stoicism

7,392

“Life is 99 percent attitude. Yet for the majority of people, it is the remaining one percent that dominates 99 percent of their life.”

stoicism

7,438

“Independence and unvarying reliability, and to pay attention to nothing, no matter how fleetingly, except the logos. And to be the same in all circumstances—intense pain, the loss of a child, chronic illness. And to see clearly, from his example, that a man can show both strength and flexibility. His patience in teaching. And to have seen someone who clearly viewed his expertise and ability as a teacher as the humblest of virtues. And to have learned how to accept favors from friends without losing your self-respect or appearing ungrateful. On Apolonius”

stoicism

7,058

“Even if you had a lot of life left to live, you would need to parcel out your time sparingly so as to have enough for necessities. As it is, with time in such short supply, what madness it is to learn things that are superfluous.”

stoicism

7,247

“You can look unhappy but feel the opposite. Or vice versa.”

stoicism

7,000

“Will you never come to a realisation of who you are, what you have been born for and the purpose for which the gift of vision was made in our case?”

stoicism

7,189

“To complain about life is to complain about being alive.”

stoicism

6,926

“Speak the truth and above all claim the things you want, at least to yourself.”

stoicism

7,319

“The universe is change, and life mere opinion.”

stoicism

7,210

“Sex for pleasure is chewing gum for genitals.”

stoicism

6,866

“Wir müssen uns weigern, die Karten, die uns ausgeteilt wurden, über unser Wohlbefinden entscheiden zu lassen.”

stoicism

7,180

“Complaining about a person is way less annoying when we complain to that person.”

stoicism

7,058

“Even if you had a lot of life left to live, you would need to parcel out your time sparingly so as to have enough for necessities. As it is, with time in such short supply, what madness it is to learn things that are superfluous.”

stoicism

7,023

“Where is the harm or surprise in the ignorant behaving as the ignorant do?”

stoicism

6,965

“Thinking of departed friends is to me something sweet and mellow. For when I had them with me it was with the feeling that I was going to lose them, and now that I have lost them I keep the feeling that I have them with me still.”

stoicism

7,367

“Meditation can make an hour feel slightly longer … than a sneeze.”

stoicism

7,603

“The man who looks for the morrow without worrying over it knows a peaceful independence and a happiness beyond all others. Whoever has said, "I have lived' receives a windfall every day he gets up in the morning.”

stoicism

7,291

“However one may interpret this culturally, the upshot is the same: people carry within them a great number of wishes to which they react passively and which they hide. Stoicism, in our day, is not strength to overcome wishes, but to hide them. To a patient who, let us say, is interminably rationalizing and justifying this and that, balancing one thing against another as though life were a tremendous market place where all the business is done on paper and tickertape and there are never any goods , I sometimes have the inclination in psychotherapy to shout out, “Don't you ever want anything?” But I don't cry out, for it is not difficult to see that on some level the patient does want a good deal; the trouble is he has formulated and reformulated it, until it is the “rattling of dry bones,” as Eliot puts it. Tendencies have become endemic in our culture for our denial of wishes to be rationalized and accepted with the belief that this denial of the wish will result in its being fulfilled. And whether the reader would disagree with me on this or that detail, our psychological problem is the same: it is necessary for us to help the patient achieve some emotional viability and honesty by bringing out his wishes and his capacity to wish. This is not the end of therapy but it is an essential starting point.”

stoicism

7,286

“Destroying your mirrors leaves your facial blemishes intact.”

stoicism

7,404

“[E]verything which went beyond our actual needs was just so much unnecessary weight, a burden to the man who had to carry it.”

stoicism

7,611

“Some of the best things that have ever happened to us wouldn’t have happened to us, if it weren’t for some of the worst things that have ever happened to us.”

stoicism

7,634

“How could I admit that the All-American Girl's force field of stoicism and self-reliance and do-unto-others-and-keep-smiling wasn't working, wasn't keeping pain and shame and powerlessness away? From a young age I had learned to get over - to cover my tracks emotionally, to hide or ignore my problems in the belief that they were mine alone to solve. So when exhilarating transgressions required getting over on authority figures, I knew how to do it. I was a great bluffer. And when common, everyday survival in prison required getting over, I could do that too. This is what was approvingly described by my fellow prisoners as 'street-smarts,' as in 'You wouldn't think it to look at her, but Piper's got street-smarts.”

stoicism

6,887

“If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity … you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge—a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity. Your attitude towards it will be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral.”

stoicism

7,575

“The worst that can happen to anyone will happen to everyone.”

stoicism

7,678

“The wife of a junior officer cooped up in a horrible canvas partition in steerage for five months wrote: "I had enjoyed much peace there in the absence of every comfort, even of such as are now enjoyed in jail. I used to say that there were four privations in my situation - fire, water, earth and air. No fire to warm oneself on the coldest day, no water to drink but what was tainted, no earth to set the foot on, and scarcely any air to breathe. Yet, with all these miserable circumstances, we spent many a happy hour by candlelight in that wretched cabin whilst I sewed and he read the Bible to me.”

stoicism

6,928

“me dulcis saturet quies; obscuro positus loco leni perfruar otio, nullis nota Quiritibus aetas per tacitum fluat. sic cum transierint mei nullo cum strepitu dies. plebeius moriar senex. illi mors gravis incubat qui, notus nimis omnibus, ignotus moritur sibi.”

stoicism

7,584

“Being a stoic does not mean being a robot. Being a stoic means remaining calm both at the height of pleasure and the depths of misery.”

stoicism

6,997

“If what charms you is nothing but abstract principles, sit down and turn them over quietly in your mind: but never dub yourself a Philosopher, nor suffer others to call you so. Say rather: He is in error; for my desires, my impulses are unaltered. I give in my adhesion to what I did before; nor has my mode of dealing with the things of sense undergone any change.”

stoicism

7,646

“Sometimes in life we must fight not only without fear, but also without hope.”

stoicism

6,985

“Every life without exception is a short one.”

stoicism

7,465

“The mind is inclined to zoom in on your problem, or few problems, to an extend that you cannot see your many blessings.”

stoicism

6,784

“How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.”

stoicism

6,926

“Speak the truth and above all claim the things you want, at least to yourself.”

stoicism

7,417

“Many are the things that have caused terror during the night and been turned into matters of laughter with the coming of daylight.”

stoicism

7,030

“... we find a complete contradiction in our wishing to live without suffering, a contradiction that is therefore implied by the frequently used phrase “blessed life.” This will certainly be clear to the person who has fully grasped my discussion that follows. This contradiction is revealed in this ethic of pure reason itself by the fact that the Stoic is compelled to insert a recommendation of suicide in his guide to the blissful life (for this is what his ethics always remains). This is like the costly phial of poison to be found among the magnificent ornaments and apparel of oriental despots, and is for the case where the sufferings of the body, incapable of being philosophized away by any principles and syllogisms, are paramount and incurable. Thus its sole purpose, namely blessedness, is frustrated, and nothing remains as a means of escape from pain except death. But then death must be taken with unconcern, just as is any other medicine. Here a marked contrast is evident between the Stoic ethics and all those other ethical systems mentioned above. These ethical systems make virtue directly and in itself the aim and object, even with the most grievous sufferings, and will not allow a man to end his life in order to escape from suffering. But not one of them knew how to express the true reason for rejecting suicide, but they laboriously collected fictitious arguments of every kind. This true reason will appear in the fourth book in connexion with our discussion. But the above-mentioned contrast reveals and confirms just that essential difference to be found in the fundamental principle between the Stoa, really only a special form of eudaemonism, and the doctrines just mentioned, although both often agree in their results, and are apparently related. But the above-mentioned inner contradiction, with which the Stoic ethics is affected even in its fundamental idea, further shows itself in the fact that its ideal, the Stoic sage as represented by this ethical system, could never obtain life or inner poetical truth, but remains a wooden, stiff lay-figure with whom one can do nothing. He himself does not know where to go with his wisdom, and his perfect peace, contentment, and blessedness directly contradict the nature of mankind, and do not enable us to arrive at any perceptive representation thereof. Compared with him, how entirely different appear the overcomers of the world and voluntary penitents, who are revealed to us, and are actually produced, by the wisdom of India; how different even the Saviour of Christianity, that excellent form full of the depth of life, of the greatest poetical truth and highest significance, who stands before us with perfect virtue, holiness, and sublimity, yet in a state of supreme suffering.”

stoicism

6,926

“Speak the truth and above all claim the things you want, at least to yourself.”

stoicism

6,816

“The first and most important field of philosophy is the application of principles such as “Do not lie.” Next come the proofs, such as why we should not lie. The third field supports and articulates the proofs, by asking, for example, “How does this prove it? What exactly is a proof, what is logical inference, what is contradiction, what is truth, what is falsehood?” Thus, the third field is necessary because of the second, and the second because of the first. The most important, though, the one that should occupy most of our time, is the first. But we do just the opposite. We are preoccupied with the third field and give that all our attention, passing the first by altogether. The result is that we lie – but have no difficulty proving why we shouldn’t.”

stoicism

7,093

“Our rationality is a visitor.”

stoicism

7,613

“Sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy.”

stoicism

7,454

“Love me for my affection, love me even for my weakness; I am satisfied myself. I prefer my feelings to all the fine sentiments of Seneca or Epictetus.”

stoicism

6,899

“The act of focusing is not simply the mental equivalent of gazing intently at an object. It is a confluence, a harmonious marriage of mind, heart, and will, an alignment akin to a troupe of actors on a stage, each playing their part, but all moving in harmony towards the climax of the play. This is the essence of true focus.”

stoicism

7,180

“Complaining about a person is way less annoying when we complain to that person.”

stoicism

6,864

“We can’t choose what the world throws at us, but we can control how we react to it, and that makes all the difference.”

stoicism

7,396

“Stoicism is Buddhism without the dogma.”

stoicism

7,524

“We ought to be thankful not only for what we have but also for what we do not have.”

stoicism

7,061

“Being in a hurry gives us the illusion of doubling the length of every second.”

stoicism

7,563

“The fact that our minds are problem-solving machines says a lot about the nature of life.”

stoicism

7,580

“Soon, you will have forgotten everything. Soon, everybody will have forgotten you.”

stoicism

7,052

“We are not the first Who with best meaning have incurred the worst. For thee, oppressèd king, I am cast down. Myself could else outfrown false Fortune’s frown.”

stoicism

6,838

“It is quite possible to be a good man without anyone realizing it.”

stoicism

7,429

“Zeno is our friend but truth is an even greater friend.”

stoicism

6,780

“People hide their truest nature. I understood that; I even applauded it. What sort of world would it be if people bled all over the sidewalks, if they wept under trees, smacked whomever they despised, kissed strangers, revealed themselves?”

stoicism

7,023

“Where is the harm or surprise in the ignorant behaving as the ignorant do?”

stoicism

7,611

“Some of the best things that have ever happened to us wouldn’t have happened to us, if it weren’t for some of the worst things that have ever happened to us.”

stoicism