Notes
This page is a (rather unstructured) list of notes I took on stoicism. While I am not sure where exactly each not comes from, here is a list of likely places of origin:
The daily emails fom The Daily Stoic
Somehwere form r/soticism
From the book "The Daily Sotic"
The actual notes
Is the voice in your head getting nicer? Are you more still? Are you practicing good self-care? That’s what progress looks like. That’s what you deserve as a human being—and as a friend.
Do Less, better. Stop trying to do everything, just do what is essential. It will make you calmer and also bring the satisfaction of doing the essential things with more care, better.
“What he was basically saying is that on the other side of difficulty is a gift—confidence. Simply believing that you’re capable of things you’ve never actually done or experienced, simply believing that you’re special and important without any evidence? Folks, that’s not your friend. That’s delusion!”
We need to look for common ground and use it. We need to see the good in other people and in other ideas and ignore the rest, whenever possible.
Yet too many of us reject that gift. We continue to think of long ago. We dream of or fear a distant future. We are distracted or preoccupied and miss what is happening around us. It’s the quiet evenings at home with family that we should be present for. It’s the ordinary present that we should cherish.
Beautiful choices—like physical fitness or perfect skin—are rarely as effortless as they seem. No, there is a regimen behind them. It takes exercise, it takes discipline, it takes sacrifice.
Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.
“Whenever you do something you have decided ought be done, never try to avoid being seen doing it, even if people in general may disapprove of it. If, of course, your action is wrong, just don’t do it at all, but if it’s right, why be afraid of people whose criticism is off the mark?”
Talk less, listen more
Whish for the hard things to happen instead of fearing them, for those things help you lern and grow. They are opportunities, not punishments.
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