The aim of an argument, or of a discussion, should not be victory but progress.
~ Karl Popper
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The aim of an argument →
For all who come →
Does the road wind uphill all the way?
~ Christina Rossetti
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yea, beds for all who come.
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True freedom →
And say while you are training yourself day after day, as you do here, not that you are pursuing philosophy (to claim that title would surely be pretentious), but that you are providing for your emancipation. For this is true freedom.
~ Epictetus
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Towards the pebbled shore →
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
~ William Shakespeare
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do content.
slip:4a580.
When thus prepared →
And when you are thus prepared and thus trained to distinguish what is not your own from your own, what is subject to hindrance from what is not, to regard the latter as your concern and the form as not, and carefully keep your desire directed toward the latter, and your aversion directed towards the former, will there any longer be anyone for you to fear?
~ Epictetus
slip:4a215.
More sweet than truth →
I have known days like that, of warm winds drowsing in the heat of noon and all of summer spinning slowly on its reel, days briefly lived, that leave long music in the mind more sweet that truth; I play and rewind.
~ Russel Hoban
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Great and noble and valuable →
Further, then, answer me this: Do you think freedom to be something great and noble and valuable? — “How should I not?” Is it possible, then, that he who acquires anything so great and valuable and noble should be mean-spirited?
~ Epictetus
slip:4a220.
Normal →
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
~ Albert Camus
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More reason to worry →
For even peace itself will supply more reason for worry. Not even safe circumstances will bring you confidence once your mind has been shocked—once it gets in the habit of blind panic, it can’t provide for its own safety. For it doesn’t really avoid danger, it just runs away. Yet we are exposed to greater danger with our backs turned.
~ Seneca
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Conformity →
I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.
~ Rita Mae Brown
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