Month: January 2025

Take a good hard look at people’s ruling principle, especially of the wise, what they run away from and what they seek out. —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.38

“From Rusticus . . . I learned to read carefully and not be satisfied with a rough understanding of the whole, and not to agree too quickly with those who have a lot to say about something.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 1.7.3

Without commitment, you cannot have depth in anything, whether it’s a relationship, a business or a hobby.” – Neil Strauss

Too many of us are total strangers to ourselves. We seek busyness. We seek external markers. We seek out others to understand us, and demand that they hear what we’re saying. Meanwhile, we ignore the voice inside. The one that is whispering to us so many important lessons. The one that is shouting so many warnings. – Ryan Holiday

External things can’t fix internal issues. – Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic p. 31

If you wish to understand the present moment, you’ll gain more clarity by studying the past than you will from following the breathless news cycle. Put distance between you and the attention merchants. Read philosophy. Read history. Read biographies. Study psychology. Study the patterns of humanity. – Ryan Holiday

I will keep constant watch over myself and—most usefully—will put each day up for review. For this is what makes us evil—that none of us looks back upon our own lives. We reflect upon only that which we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future descend from the past. – SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 83.2

I often find myself thinking that Keynes must be one of the most remarkable men that ever lived – the quick logic, the birdlike swoop of intuition, the vivid fancy, the wide vision, above all the incomparable sense of the fitness of words, all combine to make something several degrees beyond the limit of ordinary human achievement. – Lionel Robbins

Pass through this brief patch of time in harmony with nature, and come to your final resting place gracefully, just as a ripened olive might drop, praising the earth that nourished it and grateful to the tree that gave it growth.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.48.2

Tranquility can’t be grasped except by those who have reached an unwavering and firm power of judgment – the rest constantly fall and rise in their decisions, wavering in a state of alternately rejecting and accepting things. What is the cause of this back and forth? It’s because nothing is clear and they rely on the most uncertain guide – common opinion. – Seneca

You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. – Seneca