Quotes I've found interesting

Don't just say that you have read books.  Show that through them you have learned to think better.

Epictetus  

Whether you want to call yourself a Stoic or not, is not really the point. Actually, that is the point. Labels are _pointless._ They close your mind. They close you off to opportunities. They close you off to other people. And worst of all, with time, they close you off from the very things you identify with.

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic Email, 8/10/2021

Our great mistake is to try to exact from each person virtues which he does not possess, and to neglect the cultivation of those which he has.

Marguerite Yourcenar,   Memoirs of Hadrian

Undergo hardship voluntarily. Then, you will be better prepared for life’s involuntary hardships.

Unknown  

Excess in anything becomes a fault.

Seneca  

You stand as you always have.  A good man does what he must.

Kore,   Spartacus, s04e10

If you’ve lost your job, if you went through a painful breakup, if you’ve been forced to start over, if your sandcastle or your ship has been swallowed up—congratulations, you’ve been gifted a remarkable opportunity. You get to choose the life you want to build. Well done, Fortune, to drive you thus to the life you’ve always wanted.

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic Email, 8/10/2021

You also have a duty to your future self to release the project. Every time you don't release a project, you're telling yourself that you’re the kind of person who doesn't ship. Tell yourself that enough, and you'll start to believe it. Trust me, it's hard to unwind. Possible! But hard.

Aaron Francis,   The ReadME Project

A very small part of an historical piece of fiction I stumbled upon: the hero goes through a prison. He crosses path with a very secondary character locked behind bars that say to him: "Hero, I envy you to go on adventures while I rot here in prison with a life sentence. I deserved it but now my life is useless, I'll spend it here in this small cell, there's no point to it." Poor man. He can't have a family, accumulate wealth or be useful to his community. The hero then tranquillises him: "Don't worry friend, because even in prison you can still practice and live a virtuous life."

@aka457,   Reddit

In every situation, you can find a better story to tell yourself about the person who cut you off in traffic, about the cashier in the checkout line you’re stuck in, about the email you still haven’t gotten a reply to, about the player who isn’t performing the way you need them to.  You just need to be aware enough of the circumstance and of your mind’s own tendency to react, in order to consider other options, to see other handles, to ask, “is this the only story?”

Ryan Holiday,   Daily Stoic Email, 4/14/2022