Saturday, January 27, 2024

Quote of the day

 "When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought would come of it. If you understand that, you'll feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

It's important to remember when seeing quotes from Meditations that it is written for an audience of one: he is saying this to himself. He is telling himself to make an active, conscience effort not to bear ill will towards anyone, for any reason. Putting this into practice, "you will have no enemies," Epictetus taught. 

The less inclined we are to categorize people as "enemy" the better: it tends to tap into the part of human nature that wants to hate without limit.

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