Quotes I've found interesting

Quotes about stoicism, software development, personal development or just whatever I wanted to remember.

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

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

In every situation, you can find a better story to tell yourself about the person who cut you off in traffic, about the cashier in the checkout line you’re stuck in, about the email you still haven’t gotten a reply to, about the player who isn’t performing the way you need them to.  You just need to be aware enough of the circumstance and of your mind’s own tendency to react, in order to consider other options, to see other handles, to ask, “is this the only story?”

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic Email, 4/14/2022