things-in-our-control-blog

[things-in-our-control-blog]

This, in short, is the thesis of the present book: It is not by accident that feminism has had its major impact through the necessarily coercive machinery of the state rather than through the private decisions of individuals. Although feminism speaks the language of liberation, self-fulfillment, options, and the removal of barriers, these phrases invariably mean their opposites and disguise an agenda at variance with the ideals of a free society. Feminism has been presented and widely received as a liberating force, a new view of the relations between the sexes emphasizing openness and freedom from oppressive stereotypes. The burden of the present book is to show in broad theoretical perspective and factual details that this conventional wisdom is mistake. Feminism is an antidemocratic, if not totalitarian, ideology.

Michael Levin, Feminism and Freedom

[things-in-our-control-blog]

If there's a remedy when trouble strikes, What reason is there for dejection? And if there is no help for it, What use is there in being glum?

The Way of the Bodhisattva

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A gift consists not of what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.

Seneca (via marcusalldaylius)

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Someone despises me? That is his concern. But I will see to it that I am not found guilty of any word or action deserving contempt.

Marcus Aurelius (via marcusalldaylius)

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A rock thrown in the air: it loses nothing by coming down, gained nothing by going up.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (9.17)

[things-in-our-control-blog]

understanding art, lesson one

[things-in-our-control-blog]

[things-in-our-control-blog]

Turn away from vices, cultivate virtues, lift up your mind and offer humble prayers to heaven. A great necessity is ordained for you to do good when you act before a judge who sees all things.

Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy (via senecasredoubt)

[things-in-our-control-blog]

Virtue is what you do when nobody is looking. The rest is marketing.

Nassim Taleb (via smirk-face)

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A test: try living the life of a good man and see how it suits you - be the man happy with his fate, rejoicing in his acts of justice, and bent on deeds of kindness.

Marcus Aurelius, The Emperor’s Handbook: A New Translation of the Meditations (Book 4:25)

[things-in-our-control-blog]

Nothing is heavy if one accepts it with a light heart. Nothing need provoke one’s anger if one does not add to one’s pile of troubles by getting angry. To have whatsoever he wishes is within no man’s power; it is in his power not to wish for what he has not and cheerfully to employ what comes to him.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Moral Epistles CXXIII (On the Conflict Between Pleasure and Virtue)

[things-in-our-control-blog]

Ego loves this notion, the idea that something is “fair” or not. Psychologists call it narcissistic injury, when we take personally totally indifferent and objective events. We do that when our sense of self is fragile and dependent on life going our way all the time. Whether what you’re going through is your fault or your problem doesn’t matter, because it’s yours to deal with right now.

Ego Is The Enemy, by Ryan Holiday (via nemosphilosophynotebook)

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A Good Person

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“This microburst over Ahwatukee and Guadalupe in south Phoenix was about 1-1.5 miles wide, dropping damaging winds and rain. Shot 7/18/2016 at 6:00pm”

[things-in-our-control-blog]

There are three departments in which a man who is to be good and noble must be trained. The first concerns the will to get and the will to avoid; he must be trained not to fail to get what he wills to get nor fall into what he wills to avoid. The second is concerned with impulse to act and not to act, and, in a word, the sphere of what is fitting: that we should act in order, with sure consideration, and with proper care. The object of the third is that we may not be deceived, and may not judge at random, and generally it is concerned with assent.

Epictetus, Discourses, III.2

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What is the goal of virtue, after all, except a life that flows smoothly?

Epictetus, Discourses I.4

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Whatever one’s philosophical views, so long as there is such a thing as truth there must be some truths that don’t have to be grounded in anything else. Disagreement over which truths these are defines some of the deepest fault lines of philosophy.

Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos (via philosophybits)