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.
Elsewhere, this is 4a580. — slipbox
Towards the pebbled shore →
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
Elsewhere, this is 4a215. — slipbox
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
Elsewhere, this is 4a579. — slipbox
Great and noble and valuable →
Normal →
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
~ Albert Camus
Elsewhere, this is 4a605. — slipbox
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
Elsewhere, this is 4a225. — slipbox
Conformity →
I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.
~ Rita Mae Brown
Elsewhere, this is 4a604. — slipbox
The source of all human evils →
Why, do you not reflect, then, that the source of all human evils, and of mean-spiritedness and cowardice, is not death, but rather the fear of death? Discipline yourself, therefore, against this. To this let all your discourses, readings, exercises, tend. And then you will know that in this way alone are men made free.
~ Epictetus
Elsewhere, this is 4a230. — slipbox
Another →
The average man does not know what to do with his life, yet wants another one which lasts forever.
~ Anatole France
Elsewhere, this is 4a603. — slipbox
What did he trust in? →
When Odysseus was shipwrecked and cast ashore … what did he trust in? Not in reputation, or riches, or office, but in his own strength, that is to say, in his judgements about what things are in our power and what are not. For these judgements alone are what make us free, make us immune from hinderance, raise the head of the humiliated, and make them look into the faces of the rich with unaverted eyes, and into the faces of tyrants.
~ Epictetus
Elsewhere, this is 4a235. — slipbox