"BUT the tyrant will chain..." What? Your leg. "But he will cut off..." What? Your neck. What, then, will he neither chain nor cut off? Your moral purpose. This is why the ancients gave us the injunction, "Know thyself."
SUPPOSE that a competitor in the ring has gashed us with his nails and butted us violently with his head, we do not protest or take it amiss or suspect our opponent in future of foul play. Still we do keep an eye on him, not indeed as an enemy, or from suspicion of him, but with good-humoured avoidance. Act much in the same way in all the other parts of life. Let us make many allowances for our fellow-athletes as it were. Avoidance is always possible, as I have said, without suspicion or hatred.
Know Thyself. This is a lifelong quest to know thyself. Once we know ourselves we know our values and our standards. These values and standards should be unchangeable. That we not be tossed and torn on waves and rocks by the winds of fortune but be solidly on the land of principle, safe from the winds of fashion and society's whims.
ReplyDeleteThis is our quest to find what values and principles are at our core and the core of the Universe and live life accordingly.
Values and Principles. Stars to steer by when all others will fade. Let us chart them well.
ReplyDelete"I have no strings..." Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me for not having learned that you are like a weak spot on the floor. Not that I should hate you or fear you, but because I have failed to avoid what was simply a weak spot on the floor. Being Stoic does not mean putting up with attacks, it means dealing with them without sacrificing my most precious possession, my power to choose my own actions.
ReplyDelete