(독서) Daily Stoic-8월6일 THERE IS ALWAYS MORE ROOM TO MANEUVER THAN YOU THINK

"Silence is a lesson learned from the many sufferings of life."-SENECA, THYESTES, 309 (침묵은 인생의 많은 고통에서 배운 교훈입니다." - 세네카, 티에스테스, 309)     Recall the last time you said a really boneheaded thing, something Rthat came back to bite you. Why did you say it? Chances are you didn't need to, but you thought doing so would make you look smart or cool or part of the group.   "The more you say," Robert Greene has written, "the more likely you are to say something foolish." To that we add: the more you say, the more likely you are to blow past opportunities, ignore feedback, and cause yourself suffering.   The inexperienced and fearful talk to reassure themselves. The ability to listen, to deliberately keep out of a conversation and subsist without its validity is rare. Silence is a way to build strength and self-sufficiency. " 당신이 정말 어리석은 말을 했던 마지막 순간을 떠올려 보십시오. 그 말이 당신에게 되돌아와 상처를 주었던 순간입니다. 왜 그런 ...

"You must stop blaming God, and not blame any person. You must completely control your desire and shift your avoidance to what lies within your reasoned choice. You must no longer feel anger, resentment, envy, or regret."-EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.22.13 ("당신은 더 이상 신을 비난해서는 안 되며, 다른 사람을 비난해서도 안 됩니다. 당신은 자신의 욕망을 완전히 통제하고 회피를 이성적인 선택으로 전환해야 합니다. 당신은 더 이상 분노, 원망, 질투, 후회를 느껴서는 안 됩니다." - 에픽테토스, 담론집, 3.22.13)   Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for resistance to the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa for twenty-seven years. For eighteen of those years, he had a bucket for a toilet, a hard cot in a small cell, and once a year he was allowed a single visitor-for thirty minutes. It was vicious treatment meant to isolate and break down the prisoners. And yet, in spite of that, Mandela became a figure of dignity within the prison.   Though he was deprived of many things, he still found creative ways to assert his will. As one of his fellow prisoners, Neville Alexander, explained on Frontline, "He [Mandela] always made the point, if they say you must run, insist on walking. If they say you must walk fast, insist on walking slowly. That was the whole point. We are going to set the terms." He pretended to jump rope and shadowboxed to stay in shape. He held his head higher than ...

"At this moment you aren't on a journey, but wandering about, being driven from place to place, even though what you seek-to live well-is found in all places. Is there any place more full of confusion than the Forum? Yet even there you can live at peace, if needed."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 28.5b-6a (“지금 이 순간 당신은 여정을 걷고 있는 것이 아니라, 여기저기 떠돌아다니고 있습니다. 당신이 바라는 대로 잘 사는 것이 모든 곳에서 발견될 수 있음에도 불구하고 말입니다. 포럼보다 더 혼란스러운 곳이 있습니까? 그러나 필요한 경우 그곳에서도 평온하게 살 수 있습니다.” – 세네카, ‘도덕적 편지’, 28.5b-6a)     A well-known writer once complained that after becoming successful, wealthy friends were always inviting him to their beautiful, exotic houses. "Come to our home in the south of France," they would say. Or, "Our Swiss ski chalet is a wonderful place to write." The writer traveled the world, living in luxury, hoping to find inspiration and creativity in these inspiring manors and mansions. Yet it rarely happened. There was always the allure of another, better house. There were always distractions, ...

"Indeed, how could exile be an obstacle to a person's own cultivation, or to attaining virtue when no one has ever been cut off from learning or practicing what is needed by exile?" -MUSONIUS RUFUS, LECTURES, 9.37.30-31, 9.39.1 (정말 추방이 개인의 수양이나 덕을 성취하는 데 장애가 될 수 있을까요? 추방으로 인해 필요한 것을 배우거나 실천하는 것이 차단된 사람은 없었습니다. - 무소니우스 루푸스, 강의, 9.37.30-31, 9.39.1)   Late in his life, after a surgery, Theodore Roosevelt was told he might be confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of his days. With his trademark ebullience, he responded, "All right! I can work that way too!"   This is how we can respond to even the most disabling turns of fate by working within whatever room is left. Nothing can prevent us from learning. In fact, difficult situations are often opportunities for their own kinds of learning, even if they're not the kinds of learning we'd have preferred.   Musonius Rufus, for his part, was exiled three times (twice by Nero and once by Vespasian), but being ...

"That cucumber is bitter, so toss it out! There are thorns on the path, then keep away! Enough said. Why ponder the existence of nuisance? Such thinking would make you a laughing-stock to the true student of Nature, just as a carpenter or cobbler would laugh if you pointed out the sawdust and chips on the floors of their shops. Yet while those shopkeepers have dustbins for disposal, Nature has no need of them."-MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.50 ("저 오이는 씁니다. 그러니 버리십시오! 길에 가시가 있다면, 멀리하십시오! 충분히 말했습니다. 왜 귀찮음의 존재를 고민하십니까? 그런 생각은 자연의 진정한 학생에게 웃음거리가 될 것입니다. 마치 목수나 구두장이가 자신들의 작업장 바닥에 있는 톱밥과 나무조각을 지적하는 것을 듣고 웃는 것처럼요. 그러나 그 상점 주인들은 쓰레기통을 가지고 있지만, 자연은 그것을 필요로 하지 않습니다." - 마르쿠스 아우렐리우스, "명상록", 8.50)   We want things to go perfectly, so we tell ourselves that we'll get started once the conditions are right, or once we have our bearings. When, really, it'd be better to focus on making do with how things actually are.   Marcus reminded himself: "Don't await the perfection of Plato's Republic." He wasn't expecting the world to be exactly the way he wanted it to be, but Marcus knew instinctively, as the Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper would later write, that "he alone can do good who knows what things...