If Ryan Holiday had not inspired enough young bloggers to read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, then Stoicisim 101, the article he wrote for Tim Ferriss’ site ought to do the trick.
I’m a part of the earlier camp, but was definitely driven to pick Meditations back up after reading the Holiday’s piece on Ferriss’ blog. I fully expect to see an increased number of blog posts containing quotes by Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus in the coming months — I don’t think of this as a bad thing, but rather a prediction of a developing fad. I just hope that we will all have gained something by the time it passes.
With that said, here are two entries that I particularly enjoyed:
5.34 You can lead an untroubled life provided you can grow, can think and act systematically.
Two characteristics shared by gods and med (and ever rational creature):
i. Not to let others hold you back
ii. To locate goodness in thinking and doing the right thing, and to limit your desires to that
5.35 If:
- this evil is not of my doing
- nor the result of it
- and the community is not endangered,
why should it bother me?
Where’s the danger for the community?
I have been away from this blog for longer than I like, but only because there are not enough hours in the day. Life will calm down in about three weeks though, and I look forward to producing several pieces reflecting on both the year behind me and lessons I have learned.
