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  

He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.

Seneca  

You deserve moments like that. Moments where you watch the snow fall. Moments where you sit quietly with a book. Moments where you look out the train window, not on a conference call, not checking email, not wondering how long until you arrive in the city, but a moment to check in with yourself, to think about your life and what you want to do with it. Moments with loved ones. Moments where you are grateful, connected, happy, creative, in the zone—doing whatever it is that you do best.  When the Stoics talk about stillness, they aren’t talking about some abstract notion. They are talking about maybe the most important thing you can be doing in your life. They are saying that all the “work” you are doing, all the thoughts you’re expending trying to get ahead, trying to force a breakthrough, are pointless.  The real way to charge ahead is to slow down. To clear your mind. To rejoice in perfect stillness, free of the future and the past, fully present and locked in. You can do it. You deserve that.

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic Email, 4/23/2021

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

Seneca  

We do not find virtue in a man by the quality of his circumstances, but the quality of his actions.

Unknown  

When so much is being thrown at you, when there is so much you could be thinking about or doing, the strength to tune it out and do the one thing that must be done is essential.

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic Email, 4/16/2021

Is time you enjoyed wasting really wasted time?

Neil Parischa  

Whether you want to call yourself a Stoic or not, is not really the point. Actually, that is the point. Labels are _pointless._ They close your mind. They close you off to opportunities. They close you off to other people. And worst of all, with time, they close you off from the very things you identify with.

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic Email, 8/10/2021

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  

Is this not the time when a man must take time to appreciate what he has?

Brandon Sanderson,   Towers of Midnight