Fear

Many are harmed by fear itself, and many may have come to their fate while dreading fate.
—Seneca, Oedipus,992

Harm

Choose not to be harmed‚and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed‚and you haven't been."Marcus Aurelius

Planet of the Apes

After reading Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? I'm convinced that we are living on the planet of the apes. Despite our culture and technology, our basic ape behavior isn't far below the surface in politics, and social and family life. 

Consider this scene from The Square  where a performance "artist" acts like a gorilla. Initially, human culture restrains a group of sophisticated party goer while the artist intimidates them by mimicking stereotypical gorilla behavior. The party goers are restrained by cultural expectations until the artist/gorilla mimic grabs a woman and appears to attempt to rape her. At that point an alpha male human pulls the artist off of her and begins to beat the artist. He is joined by other males and the scene ends. If the point was to illustrate human ape-like behavior, it works.

Control

The trichotomy of control: According to the Stoics, we should perform a kind of triage in which we distinguish between things we have no control over, things we have complete control over, and things we have some but not complete control over; and having made this distinction, we should focus our attention on the last two categories. In particular, we waste our time and cause ourselves needless anxiety if we concern ourselves with things over which we have no control. 
- A Guide to the Good Life by William Irvine

Past

No matter how hard you try, the past can't be changed,

Go Easy

We are bad men living among bad men, and only one thing can calm us—we must agree to go easy on one another.
-Seneca

Focus

Every hour focus your mind attentively…on the performance of the task in hand, with dignity, human sympathy, benevolence and freedom, and leave aside all other thoughts. You will achieve this, if you perform each action as if it were your last…
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Government

A society will be more secure, stable & less exposed to fortune, which is founded & governed mainly by people of wisdom and vigilance.
- Spinoza

Where does one find such a society? We follow the alpha apes. The differences between human and ape politics are matters of style. Humans dress better.

The Thing Itself

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Criticism

It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

My old man used to say something like  "Never attribute to malice what is better attributed to stupidity."  I have updated that to "Never attribute to design what is better attributed to randomness." He also used to say "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is." and "Trust everyone, but cut the cards."

I miss my dad.

What Is Under Our Control

We must make the best of what is under our control, and take the rest as its nature is.
Epictetus, The Discourse Book I

For you are the one that knows yourself, how much you are worth in your own eyes
and at what price you sell yourself. For different men sell themselves at different prices.
Epictetus, The Discourse Book I

What things are under my control?

Do I know myself well enough to know my price? I'm sure I sell myself too cheaply. - on a whim, a desire, a fear.

What I hated most about Kuhn’s lectures was the combination of obscurantism and dogmatism. On one hand, he was extremely dogmatic. On the other, it was never really clear about what.
Errol Morris, The Ashtray: (Or the Man Who Denied Reality)

It may be my problem too. I'm not sure what I'm dogmatic about.

Before Completion

BEFORE COMPLETION.
Success.
But if the little fox, after nearly completing the crossing, Gets his tail in the water, There is nothing that would further.

The conditions are difficult. The task is great and full of responsibility. It is nothing less than that of leading the world out of confusion back to order. But it is a task that promises success, because there is a goal that can unite the forces now tending in different directions. At first, however, one must move warily, like an old fox walking over ice. The caution of a fox walking over ice is proverbial in China. His ears are constantly alert to the cracking of the ice, as he carefully and circumspectly searches out the safest spots. A young fox who as yet has not acquired this caution goes ahead boldly, and it may happen that he falls in and gets his tail wet when he is almost across the water. Then of course his effort has been all in vain. Accordingly, in times “before completion,” deliberation and caution are the prerequisites of success.

Richard Wilhelm. The I Ching or Book of Changes (Bollingen Series (General)) (p. 249). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.