Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
From Antisthenes. It is royal todo good and to be abused. It
is a base thing for the countenanceto be obedient and to regulate and compose
itself as the mind commands, andfor the mind not to be regulated and
composed by itself. It is notright to vex ourselves at things, for
they care not about it. Tothe immortal gods and us give joy.
(00:21):
Life must be reaped like the ripeears of corn. And one man is
born, another dies. If godscare not for me and for my children,
there is a reason for it,for the good is with me and
the just. No joining others intheir wailing, no violent emotion. From
Plato. But I would make thisman a sufficient answer. Which is this?
(00:41):
Thou sayest not well if thou thinkestthat a man who is good for
anything at all ought to compute thehazard of life or death, and should
not rather look to this only inall that he does, whether he is
doing what is just or unjust,and the works of a good or a
bad man. For the Thus itis men of Athens in truth. Wherever
(01:02):
a man is placed himself thinking itthe best place for him, or has
been placed by a commander there,In my opinion, he ought to stay
and to abide the hazard, takingnothing into the reckoning, either death or
anything else before the baseness of desertinghis post. But, my good friend,
reflect whether that which is noble andgood is not something different from saving
(01:23):
and being saved for as to aman living such or such a time,
at least one who is really aman, Consider if this is not a
thing to be dismissed from the thoughts, and there must be no love of
life. But as to these matters, a man must entrust them to the
deity, and believe what the womensay, that no man can escape his
destiny. The next inquiry being howhe may best live the time that he
(01:46):
has to live. Look round atthe courses of the stars, as if
thou wert going along with them,and constantly consider the changes of the elements
into one another. For such thoughtspurge away the filth of the turen life.
This is a fine saying of Plato, that he who is discoursing about
men should look also at earthly things, as if he viewed them from some
(02:07):
at en higher place. Should lookat them in their assemblies, armies,
agricultural labors, marriages, treaties,births, deaths, noise of the courts
of justice, desert places, variousnations of barbarians, feasts, lamentations,
markets, a mixture of all thingsin an orderly combination of contraries. Consider
the past, such great changes ofpolitical supremacies. Thou mayst foresee also the
(02:30):
things which will be, For theywill certainly be of like form, and
it is not possible that they shoulddeviate from at the order of the things
which take place now. Accordingly,to have contemplated human life for forty years
is the same as to have contemplatedit for ten thousand years. For what
more wilt thou see that which hasgrown from the earth to the earth,
(02:52):
But that which has sprung from heavenlyseed back to the heavenly realms returns.
This is either a dissolution of themutualvolution of the atoms, or a similar
dispersion of the unsentient elements, withfood and drinks and cunning magic arts turning
the channel's course. To escape fromdeath the breeze which Heaven has sent,
we must endure and toil without complaining. Another may be more expert in casting
(03:15):
his opponent, but he is notmore social, nor more modest, nor
better discipline to meet all that happens, nor more considerate with respect to the
faults of his neighbors. Where anywork can be done conformably to the reason
which is common to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear for.
Where we are able to get profitby means of the activity which is
(03:36):
successful and proceeds according to our constitution. There no harm is to be suspected.
Everywhere and at all times. Itis in thy power piously to acquiesce
in thy present condition, and tobehave justly to those who are about THEE,
and to exert thy skill upon thypresent thoughts, that nothing shall steal
into them without being well examined.Do not look around THEE today discover other
(04:00):
men's ruling principles, But look straightto this to what nature leads THEE,
both the universal in the minute naturethrough the things which happen to THEE,
and thy own nature through the actswhich must be done by THEE. But
every being ought to do that whichis according to its constitution, and all
other things have been constituted for thesake of rational beings, just as among
(04:24):
irrational things, the inferior for thesake of the superior, but the rational
for the sake of one another.The prime principle, then, in man's
constitution is the social and the secondis not to yield to the persuasions of
the body. For it is thepeculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion
to circumscribe itself, and never tobe overpowered either by the motion of the
(04:48):
senses or of the appetites. Forboth our animal but the intelligent motion claim
superiority and does not permit itself tobe overpowered by the others, and with
good reason, for it is formedby nature to use all of them.
The third thing in the rational constitutionis freedom from error and from deception.
(05:10):
Let then, the ruling principle,holding fast to these things, go straight
on, and it has what isits own. Consider thyself to be dead,
and to have completed thy life upto the present time, and live
according to nature the remainder which isallowed THEE love that only which happens to
THEE and is spun with the threadof thy destiny. For what is more
(05:32):
suitable in everything which happens. Keepbefore thy eyes those to whom the same
things happened, and how they werevexed and treated them as strange things,
and found fault with them. Andnow where are they nowhere? Why then
dost thou too choose to act inthe same way? And why dost thou
(05:53):
not leave these agitations which are foreignto nature, to those who cause them
and those who are moved by them? And why art thou not altogether intent
upon the right way of making useof the things which happen to thee?
For then thou wilt use them well, and they will be a material for
THEE to work on. Only attendto thyself and resolve to be a good
(06:13):
man in every act which thou doest, and remember look within within is the
fountain of good, and it willever bubble up if thou wilt ever dig.
The body ought to be compact andto show no irregularity, either in
motion or attitude, for what themind shows in the face, by maintaining
in it the expression of intelligence andpropriety that ought to be required also in
(06:35):
the whole body. But all ofthese things should be observed without affectation.
The art of life is more likethe wrestler's art than the dancers. In
respect of this, that it shouldstand ready and firm to meet onsets which
are sudden and unexpected. Constantly observewho those are, whose approbation thou wishest
to have, and what ruling principlesthey possess. For then thou wilt e
(07:00):
they blame those who offend involuntarily,Nor wilt thou want there approbation if thou
lookest to the sources of their opinionsand appetites. Every soul, the philosopher
says, is involuntarily deprived of truth. Consequently, in the same way it
is deprived of justice, and temperanceand benevolence in everything of the kind.
It is most necessary to bear thisconstantly in mind, for thus thou wilt
(07:24):
be more gentle towards all. Inevery pain, Let this thought be present,
that there is no dishonor in it, Nor does it make the governing
intelligence worse, for it does notdamage the intelligence, either so far as
the intelligence is rational or so faras it is social. Indeed, in
the case of most pains, letthis remark of Epicurus a thee that pain
(07:46):
is neither intolerable nor everlasting. Ifthou bearest in mind that it has its
limits, and if thou addest nothingto it in imagination. And remember this
too, that we do not perceivethat many things which are disagreeed to us
are the same as pain, suchas excessive drowsiness, and the being scorched
by heat, and the having noappetite. When then thou art discontented about
(08:11):
any of these things, say tothyself that thou art yielding to pain,
take care not to feel towards theeinhuman as they feel towards men. How
do we know if Tlaus was notsuperior in character to Socrates? For it
is not enough that Socrates died amore noble death, and disputed more skillfully
with the Sophists, and passed thenight in the cold with more endurance,
(08:33):
and that when he was bid toarrest Leon of Salamus, he considered it
more noble to refuse, and thathe walked in a swaggering way in the
streets. Though as to this factone may have great doubts if it was
true. But we ought to inquirewhat kind of a soul it was that
Socrates possessed, and if he wasable to be content with being just towards
(08:54):
men and pious towards the gods.Neither idly vexed on account of men's villain,
nor yet making himself a slave toany man's ignorance, nor receiving as
strange anything that fell to his shareout of the universal, nor enduring it
as intolerable, nor allowing his understandingto sympathize with the effects of the miserable
(09:15):
flesh. Nature has not so mingledthe intelligence with the composition of the body
as not to have allowed THEE thepower of circumscribing thyself and of bringing under
subjection to thyself all that is thyown. For it is very possible to
be a divine man and to berecognized as such by no one. Always
bear this in mind, and anotherthing too, that very little, indeed
(09:39):
is necessary for living a happy life. And because thou hast despaired of becoming
a dialectician and skilled in the knowledgeof nature, do not, for this
reason renounce the hope of being bothfree and modest, and social and obedient
to God. It is in thypower to live free from all compulsion,
in the greatest tranquility of mind,even if all the world cry out against
(10:03):
THEE as much as they choose,and even if wild beasts tear in pieces
the members of this needed matter whichhas grown around thee. For what hinders
the mind in the midst of allthis, from maintaining itself in tranquility and
in a just judgment of all surroundingthings, and in a ready use of
the objects which are presented to it, So that the judgment may say,
(10:28):
to the thing which falls under itsobservation, this thou art in substance reality,
though in men's opinion thou mayst appearto be of a different kind.
And the use shall say, tothat which falls under the hand, thou
art the thing that I was seekingfor to me, that which presents itself
as always a material for virtue,both rational and political, and in a
word, for the exercise of artwhich belongs to man or God. For
(10:52):
everything which happens has a relationship eitherto God or Man, and is neither
new nor difficult to handle, butusually an apt matter to work on.
The Perfection of moral character consists inthis, in passing every day is the
last, and in being neither violentlyexcited nor torpid, nor playing the hypocrite.
The gods who are immortal are notvexed, because during so long a
(11:13):
time they must tolerate continually men suchas they are, and so many of
them bad. And besides this,they also take care of them in all
ways. But thou, who aredestined to end so soon, art thou
wearied of enduring the bad? Andthis too when thou art one of them.
It is a ridiculous thing for aman not to fly from his own
(11:33):
badness, which is indeed possible,but to fly from other men's badness,
which is impossible. Whatever the rationaland political social faculty finds to be neither
intelligent nor social, it properly judgesto be inferior to itself. When thou
hast done a good act and anotherhas received it, why dost thou look
(11:54):
for a third thing? Besides these? As fools, do either two have
the reputation of having done a goodact or to obtain a return. No
man is tired of receiving what isuseful, But it is useful to act
according to nature. Do not thenbe tired of receiving what is useful by
doing it to others. The natureof the on moved to make the universe.
(12:15):
But now either everything that takes placecomes by way of consequence or continuity,
or even the chief things towards whichthe ruling power of the universe directs
its own movement, are governed byno rational principle. If this is Ah
remembered, it will make THEE moretranquil in many things.
From Antisthenes. It is royal todo good and to be abused. It
is a base thing for the countenanceto be obedient and to regulate and compose
itself as the mind commands, andfor the mind not to be regulated and
composed by itself. It is notright to vex ourselves at things, for
they care not about it. Tothe immortal gods and us give joy.
(00:21):
Life must be reaped like the ripeears of corn. And one man is
born, another dies. If godscare not for me and for my children,
there is a reason for it,for the good is with me and
the just. No joining others intheir wailing, no violent emotion. From
Plato. But I would make thisman a sufficient answer. Which is this?
(00:41):
Thou sayest not well if thou thinkestthat a man who is good for
anything at all ought to compute thehazard of life or death, and should
not rather look to this only inall that he does, whether he is
doing what is just or unjust,and the works of a good or a
bad man. For the Thus itis men of Athens in truth. Wherever
(01:02):
a man is placed himself thinking itthe best place for him, or has
been placed by a commander there,In my opinion, he ought to stay
and to abide the hazard, takingnothing into the reckoning, either death or
anything else before the baseness of desertinghis post. But, my good friend,
reflect whether that which is noble andgood is not something different from saving
(01:23):
and being saved for as to aman living such or such a time,
at least one who is really aman, Consider if this is not a
thing to be dismissed from the thoughts, and there must be no love of
life. But as to these matters, a man must entrust them to the
deity, and believe what the womensay, that no man can escape his
destiny. The next inquiry being howhe may best live the time that he
(01:46):
has to live. Look round atthe courses of the stars, as if
thou wert going along with them,and constantly consider the changes of the elements
into one another. For such thoughtspurge away the filth of the turen life.
This is a fine saying of Plato, that he who is discoursing about
men should look also at earthly things, as if he viewed them from some
(02:07):
at en higher place. Should lookat them in their assemblies, armies,
agricultural labors, marriages, treaties,births, deaths, noise of the courts
of justice, desert places, variousnations of barbarians, feasts, lamentations,
markets, a mixture of all thingsin an orderly combination of contraries. Consider
the past, such great changes ofpolitical supremacies. Thou mayst foresee also the
(02:30):
things which will be, For theywill certainly be of like form, and
it is not possible that they shoulddeviate from at the order of the things
which take place now. Accordingly,to have contemplated human life for forty years
is the same as to have contemplatedit for ten thousand years. For what
more wilt thou see that which hasgrown from the earth to the earth,
(02:52):
But that which has sprung from heavenlyseed back to the heavenly realms returns.
This is either a dissolution of themutualvolution of the atoms, or a similar
dispersion of the unsentient elements, withfood and drinks and cunning magic arts turning
the channel's course. To escape fromdeath the breeze which Heaven has sent,
we must endure and toil without complaining. Another may be more expert in casting
(03:15):
his opponent, but he is notmore social, nor more modest, nor
better discipline to meet all that happens, nor more considerate with respect to the
faults of his neighbors. Where anywork can be done conformably to the reason
which is common to gods and men, there we have nothing to fear for.
Where we are able to get profitby means of the activity which is
(03:36):
successful and proceeds according to our constitution. There no harm is to be suspected.
Everywhere and at all times. Itis in thy power piously to acquiesce
in thy present condition, and tobehave justly to those who are about THEE,
and to exert thy skill upon thypresent thoughts, that nothing shall steal
into them without being well examined.Do not look around THEE today discover other
(04:00):
men's ruling principles, But look straightto this to what nature leads THEE,
both the universal in the minute naturethrough the things which happen to THEE,
and thy own nature through the actswhich must be done by THEE. But
every being ought to do that whichis according to its constitution, and all
other things have been constituted for thesake of rational beings, just as among
(04:24):
irrational things, the inferior for thesake of the superior, but the rational
for the sake of one another.The prime principle, then, in man's
constitution is the social and the secondis not to yield to the persuasions of
the body. For it is thepeculiar office of the rational and intelligent motion
to circumscribe itself, and never tobe overpowered either by the motion of the
(04:48):
senses or of the appetites. Forboth our animal but the intelligent motion claim
superiority and does not permit itself tobe overpowered by the others, and with
good reason, for it is formedby nature to use all of them.
The third thing in the rational constitutionis freedom from error and from deception.
(05:10):
Let then, the ruling principle,holding fast to these things, go straight
on, and it has what isits own. Consider thyself to be dead,
and to have completed thy life upto the present time, and live
according to nature the remainder which isallowed THEE love that only which happens to
THEE and is spun with the threadof thy destiny. For what is more
(05:32):
suitable in everything which happens. Keepbefore thy eyes those to whom the same
things happened, and how they werevexed and treated them as strange things,
and found fault with them. Andnow where are they nowhere? Why then
dost thou too choose to act inthe same way? And why dost thou
(05:53):
not leave these agitations which are foreignto nature, to those who cause them
and those who are moved by them? And why art thou not altogether intent
upon the right way of making useof the things which happen to thee?
For then thou wilt use them well, and they will be a material for
THEE to work on. Only attendto thyself and resolve to be a good
(06:13):
man in every act which thou doest, and remember look within within is the
fountain of good, and it willever bubble up if thou wilt ever dig.
The body ought to be compact andto show no irregularity, either in
motion or attitude, for what themind shows in the face, by maintaining
in it the expression of intelligence andpropriety that ought to be required also in
(06:35):
the whole body. But all ofthese things should be observed without affectation.
The art of life is more likethe wrestler's art than the dancers. In
respect of this, that it shouldstand ready and firm to meet onsets which
are sudden and unexpected. Constantly observewho those are, whose approbation thou wishest
to have, and what ruling principlesthey possess. For then thou wilt e
(07:00):
they blame those who offend involuntarily,Nor wilt thou want there approbation if thou
lookest to the sources of their opinionsand appetites. Every soul, the philosopher
says, is involuntarily deprived of truth. Consequently, in the same way it
is deprived of justice, and temperanceand benevolence in everything of the kind.
It is most necessary to bear thisconstantly in mind, for thus thou wilt
(07:24):
be more gentle towards all. Inevery pain, Let this thought be present,
that there is no dishonor in it, Nor does it make the governing
intelligence worse, for it does notdamage the intelligence, either so far as
the intelligence is rational or so faras it is social. Indeed, in
the case of most pains, letthis remark of Epicurus a thee that pain
(07:46):
is neither intolerable nor everlasting. Ifthou bearest in mind that it has its
limits, and if thou addest nothingto it in imagination. And remember this
too, that we do not perceivethat many things which are disagreeed to us
are the same as pain, suchas excessive drowsiness, and the being scorched
by heat, and the having noappetite. When then thou art discontented about
(08:11):
any of these things, say tothyself that thou art yielding to pain,
take care not to feel towards theeinhuman as they feel towards men. How
do we know if Tlaus was notsuperior in character to Socrates? For it
is not enough that Socrates died amore noble death, and disputed more skillfully
with the Sophists, and passed thenight in the cold with more endurance,
(08:33):
and that when he was bid toarrest Leon of Salamus, he considered it
more noble to refuse, and thathe walked in a swaggering way in the
streets. Though as to this factone may have great doubts if it was
true. But we ought to inquirewhat kind of a soul it was that
Socrates possessed, and if he wasable to be content with being just towards
(08:54):
men and pious towards the gods.Neither idly vexed on account of men's villain,
nor yet making himself a slave toany man's ignorance, nor receiving as
strange anything that fell to his shareout of the universal, nor enduring it
as intolerable, nor allowing his understandingto sympathize with the effects of the miserable
(09:15):
flesh. Nature has not so mingledthe intelligence with the composition of the body
as not to have allowed THEE thepower of circumscribing thyself and of bringing under
subjection to thyself all that is thyown. For it is very possible to
be a divine man and to berecognized as such by no one. Always
bear this in mind, and anotherthing too, that very little, indeed
(09:39):
is necessary for living a happy life. And because thou hast despaired of becoming
a dialectician and skilled in the knowledgeof nature, do not, for this
reason renounce the hope of being bothfree and modest, and social and obedient
to God. It is in thypower to live free from all compulsion,
in the greatest tranquility of mind,even if all the world cry out against
(10:03):
THEE as much as they choose,and even if wild beasts tear in pieces
the members of this needed matter whichhas grown around thee. For what hinders
the mind in the midst of allthis, from maintaining itself in tranquility and
in a just judgment of all surroundingthings, and in a ready use of
the objects which are presented to it, So that the judgment may say,
(10:28):
to the thing which falls under itsobservation, this thou art in substance reality,
though in men's opinion thou mayst appearto be of a different kind.
And the use shall say, tothat which falls under the hand, thou
art the thing that I was seekingfor to me, that which presents itself
as always a material for virtue,both rational and political, and in a
word, for the exercise of artwhich belongs to man or God. For
(10:52):
everything which happens has a relationship eitherto God or Man, and is neither
new nor difficult to handle, butusually an apt matter to work on.
The Perfection of moral character consists inthis, in passing every day is the
last, and in being neither violentlyexcited nor torpid, nor playing the hypocrite.
The gods who are immortal are notvexed, because during so long a
(11:13):
time they must tolerate continually men suchas they are, and so many of
them bad. And besides this,they also take care of them in all
ways. But thou, who aredestined to end so soon, art thou
wearied of enduring the bad? Andthis too when thou art one of them.
It is a ridiculous thing for aman not to fly from his own
(11:33):
badness, which is indeed possible,but to fly from other men's badness,
which is impossible. Whatever the rationaland political social faculty finds to be neither
intelligent nor social, it properly judgesto be inferior to itself. When thou
hast done a good act and anotherhas received it, why dost thou look
(11:54):
for a third thing? Besides these? As fools, do either two have
the reputation of having done a goodact or to obtain a return. No
man is tired of receiving what isuseful, But it is useful to act
according to nature. Do not thenbe tired of receiving what is useful by
doing it to others. The natureof the on moved to make the universe.
(12:15):
But now either everything that takes placecomes by way of consequence or continuity,
or even the chief things towards whichthe ruling power of the universe directs
its own movement, are governed byno rational principle. If this is Ah
remembered, it will make THEE moretranquil in many things.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.