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10 Stoic quotes we need right now
There's a reason it's called "timeless wisdom."

The Super Snow Moon rises between the statues of Alexander the Great (R) and Diogenes of Sinope (L) in Corinth, 83 km from Athens, on February 19, 2019.
- Since its founding 2,300 years ago, Stoic philosophy has advocated for personal responsibility and emphasized staying present.
- Instead of moving toward pleasure and avoiding pain, Stoics know it's better to treat every moment for what it brings.
- Stoicism is especially pertinent during challenging times, such as now.
Stoicism was founded in Athens in the 3rd century BCE by Zeno of Citium. The philosophy has experienced various resurgences throughout the centuries, most notably by thinkers that love its blend of personal responsibility and naturalistic logic. The crossover with its philosophical contemporary, Buddhism, is apparent in its eschewing of pain and pleasure to focus on what each moment brings. While eudaemonia, or happiness, is the ultimate aim, that's more akin to the Buddhist notion of santosha, or contentment.
For more information on Stoicism's background, you can read my article on its influence on modern cognitive behavioral therapy. Shortly after writing that piece, I read Ryan Holiday's "The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph." Holiday convincingly applies Stoic principles to modern life. Given the struggles we're all facing with the COVID-19 pandemic, his book seems more timely than ever.
Below are 10 Stoic quotes that force us to pause and reflect on where we are right now. That is the driving message behind this philosophy: it's not the external conditions but your response to them that is the true mark of your character. The distance between what you desire and what you achieve is often measured by your resilience to discomfort and misfortune. The less you're able to endure challenges, the wider the distance. The Stoics knew this, just as they knew there's a way to close the gap.
7 Life Changing Stoic Ideas That You Can Practice Daily | Ryan Holiday | Daily Stoic
"Your first attempts aren't going to work. It's going to take a lot out of you—but energy is an asset and we can always find more. It's a renewable resource. Stop looking for an epiphany, and start looking for weak points. Stop looking for angels, and start looking for angles." — Ryan Holiday
In The Obstacle is the Way, Holiday also writes that if you sit back and wait for every opportunity to fall into your lap, you'll never really find out what you can do. It's a reminder that you're going to fail way more than you'll succeed. Yet if you're not willing to fail, success will remain elusive.
"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." — Marcus Aurelius
The quote that inspired Holiday's book title, by the world's most quoted Stoic. The Roman emperor's "Meditations" remains an important guidebook. These two sentences sum up Stoicism better than anything: if you're not going to use unfortunate circumstances to your advantage, you won't know how to transform anything. You don't run away from the roadblock. You might have to jump over it or smash it while sprinting through. Just don't avoid it. Use it to your advantage.
"I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you." — Seneca
The Roman statesman and dramatist offered many keen insights into human nature. As in theater, so in life: if you don't suffer, you won't develop empathy; if you're not challenged, you will not overcome. What a terrible life to waste.
"The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition." — Zen saying
A final quote pulled from Holiday's book. Broken bones heal stronger.
"Don't promise twice what you can do at once." — Cato the Younger
Stop procrastinating. The only worthwhile thoughts are those that directly lead to action. Promises are only words until you fulfill them.
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, circa 1885
Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images
"He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How." — Nietzsche
Plenty of research has shown that meaning is more important than anything else. Cashing a paycheck is important. To have a reason to live is of far greater value.
"Don't seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will—then your life will flow well." — Epictetus
This pandemic has affected every one of us. No one wished for it, yet here it is. How is your life flowing?
"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible." — Victor Frankl
Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, knew a few things about suffering. He recognized the difference between camp members that maintained integrity during that horrific time and those that did not. His famous hierarchy of needs states that basic requirements for survival, such as food and shelter, must first be met. After that, we can begin to self-actualize. Whether or not you accomplish that task is on your shoulders.
"You cannot separate knowledge from contact with the ground. Actually, you cannot separate anything from contact with the ground. And the contact with the real world is done via skin in the game—having an exposure to the real world, and paying a price for its consequences, good or bad. The abrasions on your skin guide your learning and discovery." — Nassim Nicholas Tassib
The Lebanese-American scholar defines a Stoic as someone who "transforms fear into prudence, pain into information, mistakes into initiation and desire into undertaking." As the title of one of his books states, you have to have skin in the game to play the game. Those wounds are bookmarks.
"We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say." — Zeno of Citium
We'll give the final word to Stoicism's founder for advice regarding the true path to knowledge. What an adage to apply in the age of social media.
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Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter and Facebook. His next book is "Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."
- How the ancient Stoics helped inform modern psychotherapy - Big ... ›
- 10 quotes from Meditations to unlock your inner Stoic - Big Think ›
- How the Stoics can help us get through lockdown - Big Think ›
Scientists find 16 'ultra-black' fish species that absorb 99.9% of light
These alien-like creatures are virtually invisible in the deep sea.
A female Pacific blackdragon
- A team of marine biologists used nets to catch 16 species of deep-sea fish that have evolved the ability to be virtually invisible to prey and predators.
- "Ultra-black" skin seems to be an evolutionary adaptation that helps fish camouflage themselves in the deep sea, which is illuminated by bioluminescent organisms.
- There are likely more, and potentially much darker, ultra-black fish lurking deep in the ocean.
The Pacific blackdragon
Credit: Karen Osborn/Smithsonian
<p>When researchers first saw the deep-sea species, it wasn't immediately obvious that their skin was ultra-black. Then, marine biologist Karen Osborn, a co-author on the new paper, noticed something strange about the photos she took of the fish.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"I had tried to take pictures of deep-sea fish before and got nothing but these really horrible pictures, where you can't see any detail," Osborn told <em><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/meet-the-ultra-black-vantafish/" target="_blank">Wired</a></em>. "How is it that I can shine two strobe lights at them and all that light just disappears?"</p><p>After examining samples of fish skin under the microscope, the researchers discovered that the fish skin contains a layer of organelles called melanosomes, which contain melanin, the same pigment that gives color to human skin and hair. This layer of melanosomes absorbs most of the light that hits them.</p>A crested bigscale
Credit: Karen Osborn/Smithsonian
<p style="margin-left: 20px;">"But what isn't absorbed side-scatters into the layer, and it's absorbed by the neighboring pigments that are all packed right up close to it," Osborn told <em>Wired</em>. "And so what they've done is create this super-efficient, very-little-material system where they can basically build a light trap with just the pigment particles and nothing else."</p><p>The result? Strange and terrifying deep-sea species, like the crested bigscale, fangtooth, and Pacific blackdragon, all of which appear in the deep sea as barely more than faint silhouettes.</p>Pacific viperfish
David Csepp, NMFS/AKFSC/ABL
<p>But interestingly, this unique disappearing trick wasn't passed on to these species by a common ancestor. Rather, they each developed it independently. As such, the different species use their ultra-blackness for different purposes. For example, the threadfin dragonfish only has ultra-black skin during its adolescent years, when it's rather defenseless, as <em>Wired</em> <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/meet-the-ultra-black-vantafish/" target="_blank">notes</a>.</p><p>Other fish—like the <a href="http://onebugaday.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-new-anglerfish-oneirodes-amaokai.html" target="_blank">oneirodes species</a>, which use bioluminescent lures to bait prey—probably evolved ultra-black skin to avoid reflecting the light their own bodies produce. Meanwhile, species like <em>C. acclinidens</em> only have ultra-black skin around their gut, possibly to hide light of bioluminescent fish they've eaten.</p><p>Given that these newly described species are just ones that this team found off the coast of California, there are likely many more, and possibly much darker, ultra-black fish swimming in the deep ocean. </p>'Deep Nostalgia' AI brings old photos to life through animation
Using machine-learning technology, the genealogy company My Heritage enables users to animate static images of their relatives.
- Deep Nostalgia uses machine learning to animate static images.
- The AI can animate images by "looking" at a single facial image, and the animations include movements such as blinking, smiling and head tilting.
- As deepfake technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, some are concerned about how bad actors might abuse the technology to manipulate the pubic.
My Heritage/Deep Nostalgia
<p>But that's not to say the animations are perfect. As with most deep-fake technology, there's still an uncanny air to the images, with some of the facial movements appearing slightly unnatural. What's more, Deep Nostalgia is only able to create deepfakes of one person's face from the neck up, so you couldn't use it to animate group photos, or photos of people doing any sort of physical activity.</p>My Heritage/Deep Nostalgia
<p>But for a free deep-fake service, Deep Nostalgia is pretty impressive, especially considering you can use it to create deepfakes of <em>any </em>face, human or not. </p>When does an idea die? Plato and string theory clash with data
How long should one wait until an idea like string theory, seductive as it may be, is deemed unrealistic?
- How far should we defend an idea in the face of contrarian evidence?
- Who decides when it's time to abandon an idea and deem it wrong?
- Science carries within it its seeds from ancient Greece, including certain prejudices of how reality should or shouldn't be.
Plato used the allegory of the cave to explain that what humans see and experience is not the true reality.
Credit: Gothika via Wikimedia Commons CC 4.0
<p>When scientists and mathematicians use the term <em>Platonic worldview</em>, that's what they mean in general: The unbound capacity of reason to unlock the secrets of creation, one by one. Einstein, for one, was a believer, preaching the fundamental reasonableness of nature; no weird unexplainable stuff, like a god that plays dice—his tongue-in-cheek critique of the belief that the unpredictability of the quantum world was truly fundamental to nature and not just a shortcoming of our current understanding. Despite his strong belief in such underlying order, Einstein recognized the imperfection of human knowledge: "What I see of Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility." (Quoted by Dukas and Hoffmann in <em>Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives</em> (1979), 39.)</p> <p>Einstein embodies the tension between these two clashing worldviews, a tension that is still very much with us today: On the one hand, the Platonic ideology that the fundamental stuff of reality is logical and understandable to the human mind, and, on the other, the acknowledgment that our reasoning has limitations, that our tools have limitations and thus that to reach some sort of final or complete understanding of the material world is nothing but an impossible, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K2JTGIA?tag=bigthink00-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">semi-religious dream</a>.</p>Can you still spread coronavirus after getting the vaccine?
The vaccine will shorten the "shedding" time.
