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The Wisdom of the Old Greeks

I loved this post. Follow the link to get the full flavour:

The Wisdom of the Old Greeks: 7 Timeless Fundamentals
Published by Henrik Edberg May 6th, 2009 in The Positivity Blog

Highlights:

?We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle

?Let him that would move the world first move himself.?
Socrates

?The unexamined life is not worth living.?
Plato

?Nothing endures but change.?
Heraclitus

?What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.?
Pericles

Here are just 7 of my favourite fundamentals from that place and time. I hope you will find them as helpful as I have.

1. If you are going your own way, prepare for reactions.
?If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.?
Epictetus

2. To get what you really dream about out of life, you have to wo/man up.
?Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.?
Aristotle

3. What they say might not really be about you.
?People often grudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves.?
?The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others.?
~ Aesop

4. Discard the things that aren?t helping you.
?The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.?
Antisthenes

5. Your wishes may not be all that they are cracked up to be.
?We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified.?
Aesop

6. Focus on building helpful habits.
?We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.?
Aristotle

7. Suffering is optional. And so is happiness.
?There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.?

?I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment??

?It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.?
~ Epictetus

All of these quotes speak to learning and libraries and our personal perpectives in modern times.

It's my 55th birthday so I am feeling a little philosophical today.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on May 08, 2009 (boomark / email).