Philosophy is an attempt to transform mankind
Philosophy in its original aspect is not a theoretical construct, but a method for training people to live and to look at the world in a new way. It is an...
Quotes by Author
- Pierre Hadot
Stoic philosophy as practice
For the Stoic, doing philosophy meant practicing how to “live”: that is, how to live freely and consciously. Consciously, in that we pass beyond the limit...
The task of philosophy
The task of philosophy … is to educate people, so that they seek only the goods they are able to obtain, and try to avoid only those evils which it is pos...
- Michel de Montaigne
Upon the highest throne
…upon the highest throne in the world, we are seated, still, upon our arses.
Suffering
Anyone who is afraid of suffering suffers already of being afraid.
We must learn to suffer
We must learn to suffer whatever we cannot avoid.
Kings and philosophers
Kings and philosophers shit: and so do ladies.
Harm and pleasure
Anything the taste of which I find unpleasant does me harm: nothing does me harm if I swallow it hungrily and joyfully. I have never been bothered by anyt...
The greatest task
If you have been able to examine and manage your own life you have achieved the greatest task of all.
Because you are alive
You are not dying because you are ill: you are dying because you are alive.1 Seneca, Epist. moral., LXXVIII, 6 ↩
Because it must be lost
That is why I so order my ways that I can lose my life without regret, not however because it is troublesome or importunate but because one of its attribu...
Who suffers before he needs to
He who suffers before he needs to, suffers more than he needs to.1 Seneca, Epist. moral., XCVIII, 8. ↩
Everybody is acting a part
Most of our occupations are farcical: ‘Mundus universus exercet histrionem.’ [Everybody in the entire world is acting a part.]12 Petroniu...
We cheat ourselves to conform to the common opinion
Whether it is art or nature which stamps on us that characteristic of living by what others say, it does us much more harm than good. We cheat ourselves o...
Universal illness means individual health
…in nature, when everything falls in unison, nothing falls. Universal illness means individual health. Uniformity is a quality hostile to disintegration.
Praiseworthy to be useless
…in an age when so many behave wickedly it is almost praiseworthy merely to be useless.
My maladies
I present my maladies, at most, for what they are and I avoid studied groans and words of foreboding. If not merriness at least composure is appropriate f...
Princes
Princes give me plenty if they take nothing from me and do me enough good if they do me no harm.
I am content
I am content to enjoy the world without being over-occupied with it and to lead a life which is no more than excusable, neither a burden to myself nor to ...
From bad to uncertain
…there is always gain in changing a bad condition for an uncertain one…
Fortune and conscience
As though good fortune were incompatible with a good conscience, men never become moral except when fortune is bad.
Emptiness and tomfoolery
If others were to look attentively into themselves as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of emptiness and tomfoolery. I cannot rid myself of ...
A just deed
The essence of a just deed lies in being voluntary.1 Cicero, De officiis, I, ix, 28 ↩
Understanding through logic
Who has ever acquired understanding through logic? Where are its fine promises? Neither for living better nor for reasoning properly.1 Ci...
The incompetent men
…the most ignorant and incompetent men whom you put in command of your wars never fail to become suddenly most worthy of command, because it is you who em...
The stupid people
Day after day I hear stupid people uttering words which are not stupid. They say something good; let us discover how deeply they understand it and where t...
Any man can speak truly
Any man may speak truly: few men can speak ordinately, wisely, adequately.
Learn from the fools
…the wise have more to learn from the fools than the fools from the wise.
Conversation
To my taste the most fruitful and most natural exercise of our minds is conversation. […] Studying books has a languid feeble motion, whereas conversation...
Talk about yourself
…you never talk about yourself without loss: condemn yourself and you are always believed: praise yourself and you never are.
Where faults are crimes
In places where faults are crimes, crimes are only faults.
Old age
An ugly old age when openly avowed is in my opinion less old and less ugly than one smoothed out and painted over.
Marriage
I know no marriages which fail and come to grief more quickly than those which are set on foot by beauty and amorous desire. Marriage requires foundations...
To be alone
I find that it is somewhat more tolerable to be always alone than never able to be so.
Reading
The principal use of reading to me is, that by various objects it rouses my reason, and employs my judgment, not my memory.
There is nothing useless
…there is nothing useless in Nature – not even uselessness.
Pleasure and pain
Following Epicurus I believe pleasures are to be avoided if they result in greater pain, and pain is to be welcomed if it results in greater pleasure.
To be better loved
I have no wish to be better loved or better valued when dead than when alive.
Education
Anyone can see that all things within a State depend upon the way it educates and brings up its children.
All the glory in the world
…all the glory in the world was not worth that a man of discretion should merely stretch out a finger to acquire it.1 Cicero, De finibus,...
There is nothing certain
There is nothing certain but uncertainty, and nothing more miserable and arrogant than man.1 Pliny ↩
To do harm
To do harm and to experience harm are equal proofs of weakness.
So many grievous crimes
So many grievous crimes religion has inspired!1 Lucretius ↩
To go according to nature
… to go according to nature is only to go according to our intelligence, as far as it can follow and as far as we can see; what is beyond is monstrous and...
Everything has been said
Nothing so absurd can be said that it has not been said by some philosopher.1 Cicero, De divinat., II, lviii, 119. ↩
Health against glory
Is there anyone not willing to barter health, leisure and life itself against reputation and glory, the most useless, vain and counterfeit coinage in circ...
On quoting others
I only quote others the better express myself.
On doubt
Only fools are certain and immoveable: It pleases me as much to doubt as to know.1 [Dante, Inferno, XI, 93] ↩
- Marcus Aurelius
Not even death
One to whom that alone is good which comes in good season, to whom it is all the same whether he performs a greater or a lesser number of actions accordin...
Simply be one
No more of all this talk about what a good man should be, but simply be one!
Rulers compared to philosophers
What are Alexander, Caesar, and Pompey when compared to Diogenes, Heraclitus, and Socrates? For these latter viewed all things in terms of both matter and...
Live according to nature
As if you had died and your life had extended only to this present moment, use the surplus that is left to you to live from this time onward according to ...
On pain
On pain: if it is unbearable, it carries us off, if it persists, it can be endured. The mind, too, can preserve its calm by withdrawing itself, and the ru...
Many have taken their leave
How many who entered the world with me have already taken their leave!
Be content with the time
You are not aggrieved, surely, because you weigh only so many pounds and not three hundred? Then why be aggrieved that you will live only a certain number...
All things are ever alike
One who has seen the present world has seen all that has ever been from time everlasting and all that ever will be into eternity; for all things are ever ...
Perfect calm
How easy it is to repel and wipe away every disturbing or inappropriate thought, and recover at once a perfect calm.
What are you thinking of
you must train yourself only to think such thoughts that if somebody were suddenly to ask you, ‘What are you thinking of?’ you could reply in all honesty ...
Philosophy is our guide
In human life, the time of our existence is a point, our substance a flux, our senses dull, the fabric of our entire body subject to corruption, our soul ...
Apart from nature
…to set your mind against anything that happens is to set yourself apart from nature.
Neither right nor wrong
Now death and life, fame and obscurity, wealth and poverty, happen to good and bad in equal measure, being neither right nor wrong in themselves; and so i...
- Epictetus
Never call yourself a philosopher
Never call yourself a philosopher, and don’t talk among laymen for the most part about philosophical principles, but act in accordance with those principl...
Be silent or speak what is necessary
Be for the most part silent, or speak merely what is necessary, and in few words.
Prepare to be laughed at
If you have an earnest desire of attaining to philosophy, prepare yourself from the very first to be laughed at.
You may be unconquerable
You may be unconquerable, if you enter into no combat in which it is not in your own control to conquer.
Perception
People are disturbed not by the things that happen but by their opinions about those things.
- Plutarch
Power is pleasant only if you are not afraid to lose it
What power is there in money or fame or influence at court to help us to gain ease of soul or an untroubled life, if it is not true that the use of them i...
What has not been said
…what has not been said is easy to say, while what has been once said can never be recalled.
Silence
…silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.
Philosophy
…philosophy is the only cure for the maladies and disorders of the soul. For with her as ruler and guide we can know what is honorable, what is disgracefu...
Perfection
…perfection is only attained by neither speaking nor acting at random–as the proverb says, Perfection is only attained by practice.1 Plat...
Caesar on pets
One day in Rome, Caesar, seeing some rich foreigners nursing and petting young lapdogs and monkeys, enquired whether in their parts of the world the women...
- Seneca
Consider yourself happy
Only consider yourself happy when all your joys are born of reason, and when—having marked all the objects which men clutch at, or pray for, or watch over...
None shall go unburied
I ask no man to perform the last rites for me; I entrust my remains to none. Nature has made provision that none shall go unburied.
Luxuries call for labour
The things that are indispensable require no elaborate pains for their acquisition; it is only the luxuries that call for labour.
Why feel sorrow
… the wise man will say just what a Marcus Cato would say, after reviewing his past life: “The whole race of man, both that which is and that which is to ...
Supreme Good is that which is honorable
… what good is there in breaking it up into tiny bits, when you can say: the Supreme Good is that which is honorable? Besides (and you may be still more s...
Pain
He who dies just because he is in pain is a weakling, a coward; but he who lives merely to brave out this pain, is a fool.
Being in one’s own company
There is a pleasure in being in one’s own company as long as possible, when a man has made himself worth enjoying.
What a wonderful privilege
Philosophy wields her own authority; she appoints her own time and does not allow it to be appointed for her. She is not a thing to be followed at odd tim...
Take pleasure in being praised
How mad is he who leaves the lecture-room in a happy frame of mind simply because of applause from the ignorant! Why do you take pleasure in being praised...
Virtue
Virtue is nothing else than right reason.
Worry about the future
Consider individuals, survey men in general; there is none whose life does not look forward to the future. “What harm is there in this,” you ask? Infinite...
Our stupidity
Our stupidity may be clearly proved by the fact that we hold that “buying” refers only to the objects for which we pay cash, and we regard as free gifts t...
Remembering vs knowing
Remembering is merely safeguarding something entrusted to the memory; knowing, however, means making everything your own; it means not depending upon the ...
Be deaf to those who love you
Be deaf to those who love you most of all; they pray for bad things with good intentions. And, if you would be happy, entreat the gods that none of their ...
Foolish to fear death
it is as foolish to fear death as to fear old age; for death follows old age precisely as old age follows youth. He who does not wish to die cannot have w...
Wisdom is an art
That which takes effect by chance is not an art. Now wisdom is an art; it should have a definite aim, choosing only those who will make progress, but with...
Making use of you as my pretext
“WHAT,” SAY YOU, “are you giving me advice? Indeed, have you already advised yourself, already corrected your own faults? Is this the reason why you have ...
Foolish to be unhappy
It is indeed foolish to be unhappy now because you may be unhappy at some future time.
The foundation of a sound mind
Do you ask what is the foundation of a sound mind? It is, not to find joy in useless things.
To live nobly or to live long
Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man’s power to live long...
For the sake of being busy
…a good man will not waste himself upon mean and discreditable work or be busy merely for the sake of being busy.
Practice what you preach
Philosophy teaches us to act, not to speak; it exacts of every man that he should live according to his own standards, that his life should not be out of ...
What is enough remains the same
Change the age in which you live, and you have too much. But in every age, what is enough remains the same.
Well said
Whatever is well said by anyone is mine.
The study of wisdom
…no man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom.
To be admired
The power to inspire fear has caused many men to be in fear. Let us withdraw ourselves in every way; for it is as harmful to be scorned as to be admired.
The wholesome rule of life
Hold fast, then, to this sound and wholesome rule of life—that you indulge the body only so far as is needful for good health. The body should be treated ...
To enjoy freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy
I am still conning Epicurus. I read today, in his works, the following sentence: “If you would enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy.” T...
Withdraw into yourself
…you should not copy the bad simply because they are many, nor should you hate the many because they are unlike you. Withdraw into yourself, as far as you...
Peaceful life
No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.
Who craves more
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
What to read
…you should always read standard authors; and when you crave a change, fall back upon those whom you read before.
Well-ordered mind
The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.
Pity vs help
Sorrow is not suited to seeing things accurately, to understanding how to get things done, to avoiding dangers, or to knowing what is just. So the wise ma...
Daily judgment seat
It was the custom of Sextius when the day was over, and he had betaken himself to rest, to inquire of his spirit: “What bad habit of yours have you cured ...
True wisdom
…true wisdom consists in not departing from nature and in moulding our conduct according to her laws and model.
What is best for us
…matters do not stand so well with mankind that the majority should prefer the better course: the more people do a thing the worse it is likely to be. Let...