character

he does only what is his to do, and considers constantly what the universe has in store for him - doing his best, and trusting that all is for the best. for we carry our fate with us, and it carries us.

the stoic fly-wheel

you have to assemble your life yourself, action by action. and be satisfied if each one achieves as much as it can… if you accept the obstacle and work with what you’re given, an alternative will present itself - another piece of what you’re trying to assemble. action by action

  1. use wisdom to determine worthy goals
  2. use courage to accomplish those goals
  3. use transcendence to view the result of achieving the goal, which generates new wisdom
  4. return to the first step

virtues

virtue is an excellent trait of character. It is a disposition, well entrenched in its possessor to

in certain characteristic ways

cardinal virtues

individuation

buildtall

practical wisdom

attention is your bandwidth for changing the universe

strength allows faith

be instead of have. character over personality

seek flow and aliveness, be still and deep

remember to fall uphill. start an uphill avalanche

the dice are yours to roll

thoughts : character :: weather : climate

you’re either breaking ground or being buried

seek a good death

become an athlete in the contest of never being overtaken by events

search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices

a gentleman is a man who is never rude by accident

the complete man works, studies, and wrestles

autonomy, not heteronomy: to act and not be acted upon

on action

marcus aureleus

how to act:

never under compulsion, out of selfishness, without forethought, with misgivings.

don’t gussy up your thoughts.

no surplus words or unnecessary actions.

let the spirit in you represent a man, an adult, a citizen, a Roman, a ruler. taking up his post like a soldier and patiently awaiting his recall from life. needing no oath or witness.

cheerfulness. without requiring other people’s help. or serenity supplied by others.

to stand up straight-not straightened.

triune

mind body spirit
truth beauty goodness
logic aesthetics ethics
wisdom self discipline transcendence

subjectivity

absolute individual sovereignty

We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies—all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.

the remnant

from this source

There is a Remnant there that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it.

As the word masses is commonly used, it suggests agglomerations of poor and underprivileged people, laboring people, proletarians, and it means nothing like that; it means simply the majority. The mass man is one who has neither the force of intellect to apprehend the principles issuing in what we know as the humane life, nor the force of character to adhere to those principles steadily and strictly as laws of conduct; and because such people make up the great and overwhelming majority of mankind, they are called collectively the masses. The line of differentiation between the masses and the Remnant is set invariably by quality, not by circumstance. The Remnant are those who by force of intellect are able to apprehend these principles, and by force of character are able, at least measurably, to cleave to them. The masses are those who are unable to do either.

Isaiah, on the other hand, worked under no such disabilities. He preached to the masses only in the sense that he preached publicly. Anyone who liked might listen; anyone who liked might pass by. He knew that the Remnant would listen; and knowing also that nothing was to be expected of the masses under any circumstances, he made no specific appeal to them, did not accommodate his message to their measure in any way, and did not care two straws whether they heeded it or not. As a modern publisher might put it, he was not worrying about circulation or about advertising. Hence, with all such obsessions quite out of the way, he was in a position to do his level best, without fear or favor, and answerable only to his august Boss.

An assignment that you can really put your back into, and do your best without thinking about results, is a real job; whereas serving the masses is at best only half a job, considering the inexorable conditions that the masses impose upon their servants. They ask you to give them what they want, they insist upon it, and will take nothing else; and following their whims, their irrational changes of fancy, their hot and cold fits, is a tedious business, to say nothing of the fact that what they want at any time makes very little call on one’s resources of prophesy. The Remnant, on the other hand, want only the best you have, whatever that may be. Give them that, and they are satisfied; you have nothing more to worry about. The prophet of the American masses must aim consciously at the lowest common denominator of intellect, taste, and character among 120,000,000 people; and this is a distressing task. The prophet of the Remnant, on the contrary, is in the enviable position of Papa Haydn in the household of Prince Esterhazy. All Haydn had to do was keep forking out the very best music he knew how to produce, knowing it would be understood and appreciated by those for whom he produced it, and caring not a button what anyone else thought of it — and that makes a good job.