Quotes I've found interesting

Don't just say that you have read books.  Show that through them you have learned to think better.

Epictetus  

The man who has anticipated the coming of troubles takes away their power when they arrive.

Seneca  

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

Jack London  

If you’re going a thousand miles an hour, if you see everything as a problem to be solved, what kind of life is that? Especially in a world where time once past can never be recovered, where everything is so fleeting, it’s a terrible shame to waste it.

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic Email, 3/31/2022

There’s no reason to rush through bedtime. There’s no reason to rush through anything or to anywhere. Because what we’re rushing from is our children and the limited time we get with them — the amount of which is never guaranteed.

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic - How the Pandemic Changed Me as a Parent

We are all victims of our lives, and we cannot change what we do in the aftermath; we can only try to make up for it. Nor can we change the minds of all those who have come to see us as they wrongly believe us to be. Some can never forget. Some beliefs are fixed in stone.

Terry Brooks,   The Last Druid

A very small part of an historical piece of fiction I stumbled upon: the hero goes through a prison. He crosses path with a very secondary character locked behind bars that say to him: "Hero, I envy you to go on adventures while I rot here in prison with a life sentence. I deserved it but now my life is useless, I'll spend it here in this small cell, there's no point to it." Poor man. He can't have a family, accumulate wealth or be useful to his community. The hero then tranquillises him: "Don't worry friend, because even in prison you can still practice and live a virtuous life."

@aka457,   Reddit

Life without design is erratic.

Seneca  

A Stoic thinks, acts, and then accepts. They do not dream, expect and wait.  Because they are not entitled, naive children.

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic Email, 12/9/2021

When your efforts are not directed at a cause or a purpose, how will you know what to do day in and day out? How will you know what to say no to and what to say yes to? How will you know when you’ve had enough, when you’ve reached your goal, when you’ve gotten off track, if you’ve never defined what those things are?

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic