Where to look when you are…anguish
Daily Touch of Inspirations
July 17th: Don't abandon others... or yourself
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
As you move forward along the path of reason people will stand in your way. They will never be able to keep you from doing what's sound, so don't let them knock out your goodwill for them. Keep a steady watch on both fronts, not only for well-based judgments and actions, but also for gentleness with those who would obstruct our path or create other difficulties. For getting angry is also a weakness, just as much as abandoning the task or surrendering under panic. For doing either is an equal desertion — the one by shrinking back and the other by estrangement from family and friend. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.9
Daily Touch of Inspirations
April 6th: Prepare yourself for negativity
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
When you first rise in the morning tell yourself: I will encounter busybodies, ingrates, egomaniacs, liars, the jealous and cranks. They are all stricken with these afflictions because they don't know the difference between good and evil. Because I have understood the beauty of good and the ugliness of evil, I know that these wrong-doers are still akin to me... and that none can do me harm, or implicate me in ugliness- nor can I be angry at my relatives or hate them. For we are made for cooperation. —Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.1
Psalm 56
For the director of music. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” Of David. A miktam. When the Philistines had seized him in Gath.
1 Be merciful to me, my God,
for my enemies are in hot pursuit;
all day long they press their attack.
2 My adversaries pursue me all day long;
in their pride many are attacking me.
3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?
5 All day long they twist my words;
all their schemes are for my ruin.
6 They conspire, they lurk,
they watch my steps,
hoping to take my life.
7 Because of their wickedness do not let them escape;
in your anger, God, bring the nations down.
8 Record my misery;
list my tears on your scroll—
are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
when I call for help.
By this I will know that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord, whose word I praise—
11 in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can man do to me?
12 I am under vows to you, my God;
I will present my thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered me from death
and my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before God
in the light of life.
www.myINSPIRATIONALquotes.net
Daily Touch of Inspirations
July 11th: The start up of you
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
But what does Socrates say? 'Just as one person delights in improving his farm, and another his horse, so I delight in attending to my own improvement day by day.— Epictetus, Discourses 3.5.14
A simple gesture of acceptance may not seem like much, but for John Karmegan it proved decisive.
www.myINSPIRATIONALquotes.net
Conversion, however, did not temper John's high dudgeon against the world. He gained some friends among fellow patients, but a lifetime of rejection and mistreatment had permanently embittered against him against all nonpatients. One day, almost defiantly, he asked me what would happen if he visited the local Tamil church in Vellore.
Belonging
From In His Image, Paul Brand and Philip Yancey (Stories for the Heart)
If a person gave away your body to some passerby you'd be furious. Yet you hand over your mind to anyone who comes along, so they may abuse you, leaving it disturbed and troubled- have you no shame in that?
— Epictetus (resource) The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom
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Daily Touch of Inspirations
June 24th: The truly educated aren't quarrelsome
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
The beautiful and good person neither fights with anyone nor, as much as they are able, permits others to fight... this is the meaning of getting an education— learning what is your own affair and what is not. If a person carries themselves so, where is there any room for fighting? —Epictetus, Discourses, 4.5.1;7b-8a
Keep a list before your mind of those who burned with anger and resentment about something, of even the most renowned for success, misforturne, evil deed, or any special distinctions. Then ask yourself, how did that work out? Smoke and dust, the stuff of simple myth trying to be a legend.
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.27
www.myINSPIRATIONALquotes.net
Daily Touch of Inspirations
February 15th: Only bad dreams
Ryan Holiday, The 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Clear your mind and get a hold on yourself and as when awakened from sleep and realizing it was only a bad dream upsetting you, wake up and see that what's there is just like those dreams. —Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.31