Steve Layman has a couple of pointers to the work of Joseph Campbell.
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.
and…
Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.
The rough clothes, the rank growth of hair and beard, the sworn hatred of silverware, the pallet laid on the ground: all these and any other perverse form of self-aggrandisement are things you should avoid…
The life we endeavour to live should be better than the general practice, not contrary to it…
Philosophy demands self-restraint, not self-abnegation – and even self-restraint can comb its hair.
Seneca (4 BC – AD 65), Moral Letters to Lucilius (5.2 – 5.5)
Each of us needs what nature gives us, when nature gives it.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (10.20)
Note: I usually quote the Maxwell Staniforth translation from the Penguin Great Ideas edition. However, for this I preferred the more recent (and much lauded) Gregory Hays translation from 2003.
Let your mind constantly dwell on all Time and all Being, and thus learn that each separate thing is but as a grain of sand in comparison with Being, and as a single crew’s-turn in comparison with Time.
Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (10.17)
[A prince] must learn from the fox and the lion; because the lion is defenceless against traps and a fox is defenceless against wolves. Therefore one must be a fox in order to recognise traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves. Those who simply act like lions are stupid.
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527), The Prince
Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.
Adam Smith (1723 – 1790), An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Too often, focus is on the [wicked] “self-love” rather than on the proper context.
Image: Shutterstock
Make it your guiding principle to do your best for others and to be trustworthy in what you say. Do not accept as friend anyone who is not as good as you. When you make a mistake do not be afraid of mending your ways.
Confucius (551-479 BC), The Analects, Book IX, para 25
“Few people ever have an abundance of choice of occupation. But what matters is that we have some choice, that we are not absolutely tied to a job which has been chosen for us, and that if one position becomes intolerable, or if we set our heart on another, there is always a way for the able, at some sacrifice, to achieve his goal. Nothing makes conditions more unbearable than the knowledge that no effort of ours can change them; and even if we should never have the strength of mind to make the necessary sacrifice, the knowledge that we could escape if we only strove hard enough makes many otherwise intolerable positions bearable.”
Friedrich Hayek (1899 – 1992), The Road to Serfdom
Image: National Portrait Gallery
Consider every question with a friend; but first, consider the friend. After you make a friend, you should trust him – but before you make a friend, you should make a judgement.
Seneca (4 BC – AD 65), Moral Letters to Lucilius (1.3)
If you lay hands on today, you will find you are less dependent on tomorrow. While you delay, life speeds on by.
Every thing we have belongs to others, Lucilius; time alone is ours. Nature has put us in possession of this one thing, this fleeting, slippery thing – and anyone who wants to can dispossess us.
Seneca (4 BC – AD 65), Moral Letters to Lucilius (1.1)