Tag Archive for: stoicism

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

Leo Tolstoi

"Aristotle [would] probably conclude most Americans, for all intents and purposes, are slaves."

David Graeber

"Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another."

Juvenal

"Irons rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind."

Leonardo da Vinci

"I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

Jimmy Dean

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

Viktor Frankl

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally. A higher paradox confounds the emotion as well as reason and there are long periods in the lives of all of us, when the truth as revealed by faith is hideous, emotionally disturbing, downright repulsive. Witness the dark night of the soul in individual saints . . ."

Flannery O’Connor

"The true purpose of man, not that which is dictated by changing inclinations, but that which is dictated by eternal and unchanging reason, is the highest and most proportionate development of his powers into a whole. Freedom is the first and indispensable condition for this development. (...) It is precisely the diversity that arises from the union of many that is the highest good that society offers, and this diversity is certainly always lost to the extent that the state interferes. It is no longer actually the members of a nation who live together in community, but individual subjects who enter into a relationship with the state, i.e., with the spirit that prevails in its government, and indeed into a relationship in which the superior power of the state already inhibits the free play of forces. Uniform causes have uniform effects. The more the state intervenes, the more similar not only everything that acts becomes, but also everything that is acted upon. (...) But anyone who reasons in this way for others is, not without reason, suspected of misunderstanding humanity and wanting to turn people into machines."

Alexander von Humboldt

"Everyone is wise—some beforehand, others afterward."

Voltaire

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root"

Henry David Thoreau

"When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor."

John Lennon

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer

"Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of goodness than malice. Evil can be protested against, exposed, and, if necessary, prevented by force; evil always carries within it the seeds of its own destruction, leaving at least a feeling of unease in people. We are defenseless against stupidity. Neither protests nor force can achieve anything here; reasons do not catch on; facts that contradict one's own prejudices simply do not need to be believedin such cases, the stupid person even becomes critical, and if they are unavoidable, they can simply be dismissed as meaningless isolated cases. Unlike evil people, stupid people are completely satisfied with themselves; indeed, they even become dangerous because they are easily provoked into attacking others. Therefore, we must be more cautious with stupid people than with evil people. ... On closer inspection, it becomes apparent that any strong external display of power, whether political or religious, strikes a large part of humanity with stupidity. ... The Bible verse that says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7) tells us that the only real way to overcome stupidity is through the inner liberation of human beings to live responsibly before God."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"A strong immune system comes from exercise and a healthy diet, not from bratwurst and pharmaceutical experiments. Stay strong, Alphas."

Kollegah

"Those who have become accustomed to the absurd will find their way well in our time."

Eugène Ionesco

"The suppression is accomplished, I do not repent of it, having only resolved on it after examining and weighing everything, and because I thought it necessary for the church. If it were not done, I would do it now. But this suppression will be my death."

Papst Clemens XIV.

"No one who lives in fear, worry, or chaos is free, but whoever frees themselves from worry, fear, and chaos is thereby also freed from slavery."

Epiktet

"All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price."

Juvenal