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Showing posts with label Stoic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stoic. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

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Nature is one,
the divine substance,
God or Reason,
so that virtue for man consists in being in harmony with the way of Nature.
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Virtue is the highest good.
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The ideal Stoic wills to control himself in those respects in which control is possible -in desiring,
believing,and responding.
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Man's freedom,
in a world in which all events are determined,
is his power to assent or dissent to course of events.
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Nothing that is according to Nature can be evil ;
hence,death,is not evil,nor are the ordinary misfortunes of life.
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Monday, August 10, 2009

Zenodotus of Ephesus (325-260 B.C.),Epigram on Zeno

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"Zeno,
reverend grey-browed sage,
thou didst found the self-sufficient life,
abandoning the pursuit of vain-glorious wealth ;
for virile (and thou didst train thyself to foresight) was the school of thought thou didst instotute,
the mother of dauntless freedom.
If thy country were Phoenicia what reproach is that ?
Cadmus too,
from whom Greece learnt writing,
was a Phoenician."
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_of_Citium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenodotus
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Friday, August 7, 2009

Cleanthes of Assos,331-233 B.C.,Invocation

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"Led me,
O Zeus,
and thou,
O Destiny,
to the end that ye have ordained for me.
I will follow without reluctance.
Were I a fool,
and refused,
I should nevertheless have to follow ! "
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Power,Literature of Power

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Utility of a different sort was the object of a group of earnest men,
mainly STOIC at first and then -omitting the Christians- Neoplatonic,
who sought to make themselves and their fellows at home in the world.
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Some,like Epictetus or Plotinus,addressed their disciples ;
others,like Dion of Prusa or Maximus of Tyre,addressed large audiences ;
still others,like Plutarch and the Neoplatonists,addrssed a reading public.
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A group of orators,including Themistius and Libanius,aimed rather at entertainment that edification.
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Perhaps Lucian,
who deserves a place in the shortest list of ancient books worth the modern reader's attention,
shares the functions of teacher and entertainer.
His imaginative writings make a transition to the Greek romances,
which exerted a very great influence on our own function forms.
..