I’ve always been interested in history. Mainly war history, but philosophy has piqued my interest in the last few years. We’ve been trying to find our purpose in life for thousands of years and I doubt we’ve found the answer.
Nonetheless, I hear certain bits of wisdom today that strike me as not entirely new. Certainly, our lives are much different than they were in the time of Socrates or Marcus Aurelius. Certain things that were part of life back then are now taboo. But what about the way we think about life and how to be good people? I don’t think it’s so different.
Wisdom I hear today is often just a different way of saying things that our ancestors said. That doesn’t necessarily mean plagiarism. Maybe, it means that they had similar thoughts to ours and it has simply remained wise advice after all these years.
I’m particularly interested in Stoicism. The Stoic philosophy is a philosophy that emphasizes, well, being stoic. Accepting your current circumstances for what they are. Not meaning complacency of course, instead meaning not allowing them to make you miserable. They also believe in the use of the mind, logic and reason, over emotional reactions.
Stoic philosophers include the previous mentioned Marcus Aurelius, an emperor of Rome, Epictetus, a Greek philosopher who was born a slave, and Seneca, who had the impossible task of being a tutor to the infamous emperor Nero.
I’ll list a few quotations from our ancient philosophers and then do my best to correlate them to how we think today:
“The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.” – Marcus Aurelius. Sounds pretty applicable today, doesn’t it? Think of all the politicians, activists, and keyboard warriors who weigh in on every subject imaginable despite knowing little to nothing about them.
Here’s one you might recognize and it fits in nicely with the previous quote: “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates. This is among his more famous quotes and it’s still true today. No matter how much you might know about something, there’s still much more for you to learn.
“Let him that would move the world, first move himself.” – Socrates. You’ve heard the idea that if you want to change the world, start by making your bed, right? Looks like Socrates figured that out 2500 years ago.
“It takes more than just a good looking body. You’ve got to have the heart and soul to go with it.” -Epictetus. Today we sometimes say that there’s more to attraction than the external and I think most of us would agree. In my personal findings, although there are of course exceptions, the more someone is focused on their outward image, the less substance there is on the inside.
“Do not be wise in words – be wise in deeds.” -Marcus Aurelius. Pretty straightforward correlation here. How many times have you heard that actions speak louder than words?
“We should not, like sheep, follow the herd of creatures in front of us, making our way where others go, not where we ought to go.” – Seneca. I was always told growing up, “be a leader, not a follower.”
I could go on and on, but I encourage you to read quotes from these philosophers on your own as well as perhaps finding others to learn from.
I carry a coin in my pocket (when I remember to put it in my pocket) that reads, “Memento Mori,” on one side, and then a fragment of a Marcus Aurelius quote on the other, “You could leave right now.” As in leave this world. The other half of the quote being, “Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
Memento Mori is an old Roman phrase that essentially means, remember that you are mortal. Or, remember that you will die. It’s not some doom and gloom prophecy meant to make you despair. We know from the moment we’re old enough to understand death that we are all fated to die. So, make the most of the present. Worded how we might hear this today, live life to the fullest.
What do you contemplate in order to live properly and guide yourself? What philosophies have had an impact on you? How do you act upon the virtues and ethics of goodness?
Thank you for reading.