Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (7.27)
Execupundit’s Michael Wade points to a fascinating essay…
By the same token, what we could call behavioral poverty helps explain how some individuals spend their lives mired in poverty and social dysfunction. Behavioral poverty is reflected in the attitudes, values, and beliefs that justify entitlement thinking, the spurning of personal responsibility, and the rejection of traditional social mechanisms of advancement. It is characterized by high self-indulgence, low self-regulation, exploitation of others, and limited motivation and effort. It can be correlated with a range of antisocial, immoral, and imprudent behaviors, including substance abuse, gambling, insolvency, poor health habits, and crime.
Execupundit – an essential daily visit – is here.
The essay, Behavior Matters, is on City Journal, here.
Photo by Matt Hearne on Unsplash
On September 22nd, 1735, Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first Prime Minister (although the title was not used until much later), moved into Number Ten Downing Street (although it did not have that number then). Its famous door (through which it was not then entered) has become an iconic symbol of Britain’s democratic government.
The Adam Smith Institute’s Madsen Pirie on a famous house and its early resident.
The residence at 10 Downing Street that he occupied is not what it seems. Walpole had the architect William Kent connect two houses, making the Downing Street front one effectively a passage through to the main building behind it. A corridor connects it to the Cabinet Office much further up Whitehall, and there is a tunnel under Whitehall that we’re not supposed to know about that connects it to the Defence Ministry…
In many ways Ten Downing Street resembles the British constitution it safeguards. There is much more to it than the outward appearance might suggest, and it adapts and changes over time to meet the new challenges it is called upon to face. Yet it preserves the outward form, providing reassurance of continuity. It is modest, rather than grandiose, reminding us that the Prime Minister is a person like us, who lives in a house, as we do, rather than some god-like remote dignitary.
And, more on the official government site, here.
Photo by Jordhan Madec on Unsplash
It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.
Joseph Campbell (1904 – 87), The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Ch 1, para 2)
There’s a new exhibition of William Blake’s work at the Tate Britain.
Despite this rather downbeat review, I find my interest heightened by ” the show’s focus on practicalities”:
Continue reading “William Blake, freelancer?”
Everybody loves to hate the bad guy. Here’s an interesting piece from the BPS on the evolutionary importance of baddies in stories.
Continue reading “Our love of villains runs deep”
Here’s an important question for sovereign professionals. Are you doing the important part or the hard part?
It may not be what you think:
Continue reading “Important versus hard – @ThisIsSeth”
…with Nicholas Bate.
This is well worth a read.
From…
Continue reading “The Z to A of personal wealth”
There are three things which the gentleman guards against. In youth, when the physical powers are not yet settled, he guards against lust. When he is strong and the physical powers are full of vigour, he guards against quarrelsomeness. When he is old, and the animal powers are decayed, he guards against covetousness.
Confucius (551-479 BC), The Analects, Book XVI, para. 19
Professor Anthony Long is largely responsible for reviving serious academic interest in Stoicism.
In this talk (from Stoicon 2018) – Stoicisms Ancient and Modern – he discusses “three big ideas” of Stoicism:
