Important Stoic Reminders
I recently listened Tim Ferriss’ book, the 4 Hour Workweek again for the 2nd time because it’s so full of great nuggets of insight.
It’s a very informative book on breaking free from the typical 9 to 5 work life many of us have become accustomed to. I recommend reading this book if you want to break free from the cubical and create a more fulfilling entrepreneurial lifestyle.
I stumbled across the post “Stoicism 101: A Practical Guide for Entrepreneurs” on Tim’s blog.
I’ve never been exposed to Stoicism until I read this post but the principles are a practical set of rules for better results with less effort. I suggest you read the article as it’s very good and there are over 300 comments adding to the discussion.
I thought I would re-post some of the stoic reminders here as they help re-calibrate my mind and remind myself to be happy with the things that matter.
“So other people hurt me? That’s their problem. Their character and actions are not mine. What is done to me is ordained by nature and what I do by my own.”
“Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions—not outside.”
“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own–not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me.”
“Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.”
“‘What progress have I made? I am beginning to be my own friend.’ That is progress indeed. Such a people will never be alone and you may be sure he is a friend to all.”
“Show me a man who isn’t a slave; one who is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear. I could show you a man who has been a Consul who is a slave to his ‘little old woman’, a millionaire who is the slave of a little girl in domestic service. And there is no state of slavery more disgraceful than one which is self-imposed.”
“Count your years and you’ll be ashamed to be wanting and working for exactly the same things as you wanted when you were a boy. Of this make sure against your dying day – that your faults die before you do.”
“Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.”
“Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity and always take full note of fortune’s habit of behaving just as she pleases, treating her as if she were actually going to do everything that is in her power.”
“So-and-so’s son is dead
What happened?
His son is dead
Nothing else?
Not a thing.
So-and-so’s ship sank
What happened?
His ship sank.
So-and-so was carted off to prison.
What happened?
He was carted off to prison.
-But if we now add to this “He has had bad luck,” then each of us is adding this observation on his own account”
Related articles
- Five Reasons Why Stoicism Matters Today
- Be stoic for a week (stiff upper lip not required) (guardian.co.uk)
- Stoicism: God or atoms? by Donald Robertson (humanisticpaganism.com)
- Stoicism (1minutetheory.com)
- Introductions to Stoicism and Naturalism (stoicnaturalism.wordpress.com)