Lay down from this moment a certain character and pattern of behaviour for yourself, which you are to preserve both when you’re alone and when you’re with others.
Epictetus (c.50 – 135), Handbook (33.1)
Tag: Inspiration
Men seek for seclusion in the wilderness, by the seashore, or in the mountains – a dream you have cherished only too fondly yourself. But such fancies are wholly unworthy of a philosopher, since at any moment you can choose to retire within yourself. Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul; above all, he who possesses resources in himself, which he need only contemplate to secure immediate ease of mind – the ease that is but another word for a well-ordered spirit. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (4.3)
How’s your tsundoku? In our present time of limited distraction, I’m hoping to eat my way through mine.
For tsundoku is the Japanese word for books piling up, unread.
Learned readers will of course appreciate that this is a positive thing.
It’s another of those valuable concepts ( Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, wabi-sabi) that the Japanese have a word for.
More here (Open Culture), here (Wikipedia) and here (BBC).
Main image, photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash
We all should have a reading nook in which to snuggle down and escape into a book.
TheMindCircle.com has some excellent examples, here.
Images: TheMindCircle.com
Give your heart to the trade you have learnt, and draw refreshment from it. Let the rest of your days be spent as one who has wholeheartedly committed his all to the gods, and is thenceforth no man’s master or slave.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (4.31)
I could retreat here.
The Contemporist.com highlights this writer’s studio that’s also home to a 1,700 volume poetry library, designed by architect Eric J. Smith.
Photography by Durston Saylo | Design: Eric J. Smith Architect
All the things that fortune favours become fruitful and pleasant only if those who possess them are also in possession of themselves and not in the power of their property. It is a mistake to judge fortune responsible for anything that is good or bad for us. Fortune merely gives us the material for good and bad things—the preliminaries for what will turn out to be either good or bad within us.
Seneca (4 BC – AD 65), Moral Letters to Lucilius (98.2)
All life is at Cultural Offering, including…
Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humour is just common sense, dancing. Those who lack humour are without judgement and should be trusted with nothing.
Clive James
and…
“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”
Frédéric Chopin
Among the many gems I’ve gathered from Kurt is the Frank Sinatra album, In The Wee Small Hours.
I discovered only yesterday that the cover of Tom Waits’ The Heart of Saturday Night was based on the sleeve of the Sinatra album.
Image: Kurt Harden.
Dip into these insights and reminders from Nicholas Bate…
Play more music, more often. It can only make you feel better.
The deepest thinking coincides with the most brisk of walking. Rain or shine.
Whatever you do, do it well. You feel good and you become indispensable.
Facts stand wholly outside our gates; they are what they are, and no more; they know nothing about themselves, and they pass no judgement upon themselves. What is it, then, that pronounces the judgement? Our own guide and ruler, Reason.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (9.15)