One thing I said I was working on back in the summer was a full website where all of the quotes that are within the domain of books I have read on the topic can be housed. Well that website is live!
It ain't perfect, but it's a start. Only 295 more quotes to categorize!
https://theradstoic.com/radstoicbooks.html
Fortune caught me unprepared with that sudden blow. Now I bear it in mind, not only that all things are liable to death, but that that liability is governed by no set rules. Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
Treat what you don’t have as nonexistent.
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Don’t resist the thoughts that’ll pop up. Instead, keep watching them as they roll on through. Observe a thought – then let it go and remind yourself that this thought isn’t you. Make it your favorite past time, you’re very own private sitcom, your show about nothing. As soon as you master the art of observing an idea and letting it go, your mind will quickly run out of topics to bring up. I learned to observe the thought that triggered my anger. The same event that once brought me anger, now triggers happiness. Reframing that reframes the emotion.
— Mo Gawdat, Solve for Happy
Rads Take
I am starting to listen to The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. I think it is a thick book as the reading time is 13+ hours. But in the intro he says "Anger is the most destructive of emotional responses, for it clouds your vision the most." In the 3rd quote above, Mo speaks about anger. I, myself, would get angry around the house. But since I have adopted this philosophy, it just doesn't happen anymore.
Taking in the big picture, being aware of the big picture, allows you to recognize the emotion that much more quickly and think about what the outcome of acting on that emotion will get you. For me, I agree with Mo and Robert (I am on a first name basis with them).
I could have gotten angry this morning. Sometimes...dealing with children...particularly ones that are 7-years-old and younger, comes with an absence of logic. Sometimes.
As a parent, it just doesn't make sense that another human acts the way that they do, says the things that they say. When it doesn't jive with your thought process or what you think is logical, we just get angry - especially after 3, 4, 5, 6 times of facing the same rebuttal. But as Mo says, that angry thought that comes through starting after the second rebuttal is just a thought. We also have other thoughts such as "this is a nice house", "even though she is nuts, I still love her," or "I am being forced to employ patience and that is good practice for me."
OK that last one is a bit unrealistic.
Depending upon your mindset.
But it is the appreciation of hardship that makes some folks look at Stoics as psychopaths. "How can you not be affected by this??"
The proper question there is "how can you not be negatively affected by this??"
It is because we can choose not to be. I think that was covered in The Rad Stoic #018 - "choose not to be harmed and you haven't been."
And the more you mentally prepare yourself for the inanity of the world, the less you will be taken aback by it as Seneca notes in quote 1. Practicing premeditatio malorum enables you to pre-consider a world when things don't go perfect so that you will not be caught off guard when, sure enough, it isn't perfect.
And quote 2, as we find ourselves in gift buying season... I know what my dad meant when he said "I really don't need anything." It makes a mom's job that much more difficult but as someone who is bought in on this philosophy, I want time and peace. And to take pride in productivity.
Things won't make me happier. My happiness is achieved solely through mindset and appreciation.
But....if you really want to get me something, I'd take 4 tickets to the NFC Championship Game which will be in Philadelphia on Sunday, January 25th.