Do not wear too fine, nor yet too frowzy, a toga. One needs no silver plate, encrusted and embossed in solid gold; but we should not believe the lack of silver and gold to be proof of the simple life.
Let us try to maintain a higher standard of life than that of the multitude, but not a contrary standard; otherwise, we shall frighten away and repel the very persons whom we are trying to improve.
We also bring it about that they are unwilling to imitate us in anything, because they are afraid lest they might be compelled to imitate us in everything.
The first thing which philosophy undertakes to give is fellow feeling with all men; in other words, sympathy and sociability. We part company with our promise if we are unlike other men. We must see to it that the means by which we wish to draw admiration be not absurd and odious.
I am likely to completely overlook the unassuming mean, precisely because it cares little about being noticed, and I find myself drawn instead to the gregarious extremes, precisely because they are very keen on grand performances. It would all be quite silly, if it wasn’t all so mortally dangerous.
Too much and too little are in a constant competition for our attentions, knowing full well that they can only sell themselves on their immediate appearances. If I were to look any deeper, I would recognize that moderation is content with simply being itself, and it has no need to consume or destroy anything else.
Finding the balance will require the careful forming of a delicate habit.
At one moment, I may wish to feel more important by wearing fancy clothes and playing with expensive toys. Sensing the vanity of it all, at the next moment I may then wish to feel more important by dressing in rags and throwing away all my worldly possessions. Now I am only left with a sense of waste.
Neither will be necessary, since I do not need more or less of anything else in order to be important; Nature already gave me my own power of judgment, the only means for excellence that I need.
A good life will never be defined by standing in opposition to anything, or by being in conflict with anyone, or by tearing that down to raise this up. Virtue for its own sake will stand on its own merits, and is directed toward a benefit for all, not just for some at the expense of others.
I am hardly becoming a better man if I am turning away my neighbor in the process; there will be no helping where I am only building up divisions. Getting all caught up in the back-and-forth pettiness of the external accidentals, I am then abandoning the justice of the internal essentials.
In the simplest of terms, I don’t have to make others look wrong in order for me to look right. That very obsession with the seeming, instead of the being, is the stuff of extremes, instead of the mean.
Stoicism, like any philosophy in harmony with Nature, is grounded in understanding and compassion. Putting on a show of the differences means that I have no sense of the shared unity.
Let us try to maintain a higher standard of life than that of the multitude, but not a contrary standard; otherwise, we shall frighten away and repel the very persons whom we are trying to improve.
We also bring it about that they are unwilling to imitate us in anything, because they are afraid lest they might be compelled to imitate us in everything.
The first thing which philosophy undertakes to give is fellow feeling with all men; in other words, sympathy and sociability. We part company with our promise if we are unlike other men. We must see to it that the means by which we wish to draw admiration be not absurd and odious.
I am likely to completely overlook the unassuming mean, precisely because it cares little about being noticed, and I find myself drawn instead to the gregarious extremes, precisely because they are very keen on grand performances. It would all be quite silly, if it wasn’t all so mortally dangerous.
Too much and too little are in a constant competition for our attentions, knowing full well that they can only sell themselves on their immediate appearances. If I were to look any deeper, I would recognize that moderation is content with simply being itself, and it has no need to consume or destroy anything else.
Finding the balance will require the careful forming of a delicate habit.
At one moment, I may wish to feel more important by wearing fancy clothes and playing with expensive toys. Sensing the vanity of it all, at the next moment I may then wish to feel more important by dressing in rags and throwing away all my worldly possessions. Now I am only left with a sense of waste.
Neither will be necessary, since I do not need more or less of anything else in order to be important; Nature already gave me my own power of judgment, the only means for excellence that I need.
A good life will never be defined by standing in opposition to anything, or by being in conflict with anyone, or by tearing that down to raise this up. Virtue for its own sake will stand on its own merits, and is directed toward a benefit for all, not just for some at the expense of others.
I am hardly becoming a better man if I am turning away my neighbor in the process; there will be no helping where I am only building up divisions. Getting all caught up in the back-and-forth pettiness of the external accidentals, I am then abandoning the justice of the internal essentials.
In the simplest of terms, I don’t have to make others look wrong in order for me to look right. That very obsession with the seeming, instead of the being, is the stuff of extremes, instead of the mean.
Stoicism, like any philosophy in harmony with Nature, is grounded in understanding and compassion. Putting on a show of the differences means that I have no sense of the shared unity.
Written in 3/2012
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