来自古希腊的心灵鸡汤

这里一年四季温暖如春,没有酷暑没有严寒......
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首先要说的是,我并不喜欢喝鸡汤,觉得自己活了大半辈子了,自己熬出来的鸡汤够自己喝的。昨日有网友提到一个哲学家Epictetus, a western philosopher, an exponent of Stocisim, who was born a slave in Turkey, and spent most of his time in Greece. 今日得空上网搜了搜,发现这个生活在公元55-135间的哲学家传道的话,今日听来依然受益匪浅( they still ring so true today)。 特此抄录自己喜欢的和特别适合送给女儿的句子,也借此送给自己和感兴趣的朋友:
 
“Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness”
 
“To accuse others for one's own misfortune is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.”
 
“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems” 
 
“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
 
“Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths. Remain steadfast...and one day you will build something that endures: something worthy of your potential.” 
 
“No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”
 
“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.” 
 
“If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: 'I used to be angry every day; then every other day; now only every third or fourth day.' When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods.”
 
 “If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.” 
 
“Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.”
 
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” 
 
“Don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.”
 
 “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.” 
 
“No one is ever unhappy because of someone else.”
 
“It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous -- even death is terrible only if we fear it.” 
 
“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” 
 
“Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.”
 
“Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.”
 
“I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live.” 
 
 “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
 
“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
 
“A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope” 
 
“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. ”
 
“Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat.”
 
“Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So act toward children, so toward a wife, so toward office, so toward wealth.” 
 
“It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance”
 
“Don't live by your own rules, but in harmony with nature”
 
“For sheep don't throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk.” 
ziqiao123 发表评论于
喜欢这句:“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
谢谢分享。
暖冬cool夏 发表评论于
回复波波:是的,喝了有营养,有抵抗力。长周末快乐!
波城冬日 发表评论于
我们一起喝! :-)
暖冬cool夏 发表评论于
回复“7grizzly": I am never a philosophy person, and aways think that philosophy is too abstract for me to understand until you mentioned Epictetus and till I googled his quotes. They resonated in me as I have actually said something similar to my daughter (in this sense, I am close to a wise mom, :-). So upon reading these, I was thrilled and eager to share with her again. Not sure if she read it or not already, but I will reinforce. Sometimes it is easier to say than to do. Myself too at workplace ( Long story. You might think that I am online all the time. Don't get me wrong. I was a very hardworking person. :-). Thank you, my friend, for your sincerity and uplifting me in a way. Have a great long weekend!
7grizzly 发表评论于
Thank you for posting these. It's a good read and I know I'll come
back to read more. I see Stoicism renewed and re-expressed in America, or
in the West for that matter, constantly.

Almost every re-reading of Epictetus resonates with some thoughts. This
time, it is these.

- The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose
presence calls forth your best.

It seems easier in our Internet age.


- Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet.

This is the answer to the question: should I feel defeated when a
colleague comes up with a smart solution to a technical problem at
work?
暖冬cool夏 发表评论于
回复“oncemm”:是的,是挺多挺长,英文译得也很好,昨日想来想去删不了太多,是够我们喝的。毕竟是哲学家。让我们一起读之并用之于生活中
Once-always 发表评论于
好久没喝鸡汤了,凉mm这碗是三珍海味齐全,而且是一辈子的量。thanks for sharing (sharing is caring.)
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