Thursday, May 30, 2024

Quote of the day

 "Fate guides the willing, but drags the unwilling." - Cleanthes, "Hymn to Zeus"

Cleanthes was the successor of Stoicism's founder Zeno.* This is one of those wonderful quotes that brings to our attention a truth that we already know and it seems so obvious but we still have a hard time accepting or living by it. No amount of frustration, lamentation or self-inflicted misery will ever be able to change things that are out of our control: the only reasonable option is to deal with whatever happens as best we can.

*See Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman for a biography of Cleanthes.

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