PHILOSOPHIES
OF LIFE
There are
several ancient philosophical schools proclaiming that happiness
«hangs on one’s thinking”. Our positive or negative thoughts,
and the way we see the world and ourselves, determine our
happiness - without a direct dependence on objective causes.
Seneca and the stoic philosophers in general are great
interpreters of this thought.
Meaning of life and Philosophies of life
Everything hangs on one’s thinking. (…) A man is as unhappy as
he has convinced himself he is.
Seneca, Roman philosopher
and politician, Letters to Lucilius
What difference does it make what your position in life is, if
you dislike it yourself?
Seneca, Roman philosopher
and politician, Letters to Lucilius
Not happy he who thinks himself not so.
Unknown ancient roman or
greek authorship, cited in Seneca Letters to Lucilius
Happiness is an ideal of the imagination, not of reason.
E. Kant, 1724-1804, German
philosopher, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics
See also:
Happiness
FACING THE FUTURE WITH CARELESSNESS, LIVING THE PRESENT
To many ancient writers and philosophers happiness
and meaning of life are
achieved by living the present placidly, and minimizing or
ignoring the future and its evils.
The life of the folly is empty of gratitude, full of anxiety,
all of it focused in the ghosts of the future.
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher, Letter to Meneoceus
We must heal our misfortunes by the grateful recollection of
what has been and by the recognition that it is impossible to
make undone what has been done.
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher, The Extant Remains
Overlook what tomorrow may bring, and count as profit
every day that Fate allows.
Horace, 65-8 a. C., Roman
poet, Odes
Believe each day that has dawned is your last, and some hour for
which you haven’t been expecting will prove lovely.
Horace, 65-8 a. C., Roman
poet, Epistles
Projecting our thoughts far ahead of us, instead of adapting
ourselves to the present, is cause of fear. Foresight, the
greatest blessing humanity has been given, is also a curse.
Seneca, Roman philosopher
and politician, Letters to Lucilius
What’s the good of dragging up sufferings which are over, or of
being unhappy now just because you were then? (…) When troubles
come to an end, the natural thing is to be glad.
Seneca, Roman philosopher
and politician, Letters to Lucilius
Wild animals run from the dangers they actually see, and once
they have escaped them worry no more. We however are tormented
alike by what is past and what is to come.
Seneca, Roman philosopher
and politician, Letters to Lucilius
A number of our blessings do us harm, for memory brings back the
agony of fear, while foresight brings it on prematurely. No one
confines his unhappiness to the present.
Seneca, Roman philosopher
and politician, Letters to Lucilius
Those who are contented and at ease with the moment, those who
live in accord with the course of Nature, cannot be affected by
sorrow or joy. That’s what the ancients called release from
bondage.
Chuang-Tzu, Taoist thinker,
century III or II b. C., Book of Chuang-Tzu
Comments
Meaning of
life and Philosophies of life
See also:
Life and Love
Life and friendship
Happiness
Existential Thought
Life Best Years
WE SHOULD BE CARELESS AND UNATTACHED TO MATERIAL WEALTH.
Ancient oriental philosophy proclaims emphatically that, to
avoid worries and anxiety, we should be unattached to material
possessions. This is a thought we can also encounter in the Epicurist and Stoic philosophers, or in the Bible.
Meaning of life and Philosophies of life
When we surrender ourselves to material desires – a new car, a
new home, for instance – we increase the intensity and number of
the desires. Our wishes increase and we become less and less
satisfied, and more and more incapable of satisfying them.
Dalai Lama, Tibetan
spiritual and political leader, Voices from the Heart
He who does not think that what he has is more than sufficient,
is an unhappy man, even if he is the master of the whole world.
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher, in Seneca Letters to Lucilius
Those who cannot release themselves are so because they are
bound by material things.
Chuang-Tzu, Taoist thinker,
century III or II b. C., Book of Chuang-Tzu
When we bend ourselves to material desires – a new car, a new
home, for instance – we increase their intensity and their
number. Our wishes increase and we become less and less
satisfied, and more and more incapable of satisfying them.
Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual and
political leader, Voices from the Heart
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry
about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Bible, Matthews
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you
will eat or drink; or about your body, and what you will wear.
Is not life more important than food, and the body more
important than clothes?
Bible, Matthews
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store
away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you
not much more valuable than they?
Bible, Matthews
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Bible, Matthews
Why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field
grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even
Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If
that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here
today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much
more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Bible, Matthews
So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we
drink?' or 'What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all
these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well.
Bible, Matthews
Comments
Meaning of
life and Philosophies of life
See also:
Existential Thought
Is Life Meaningful
Life is Dream
Life is Short
Life is Pain
POVERTY, EQUALITY, SOLIDARITY AND A MONASTIC LIFE.
In a tradition that includes mystics such as Saint Francis
of Assisi, some religious philosophies demand from their members
a vow of poverty, a strict equality and a monastic life. That’s
the way to desired happiness.
1
Before all else, dear brothers, love God and then your neighbour,
because these are the chief commandments given to us.
2
The main purpose for you having come together is to live
harmoniously in your house, intent upon God in oneness of mind
and heart.
3
Call nothing your own, but let everything be yours in common.
Food and clothing shall be distributed to each of you by your
superior, not equally to all, for all do not enjoy equal health,
but rather according to each one's need.
Saint Augustine Order
See also:
Poems about life
Life and Love
Life and friendship
Happiness
Existential Thought
PLEASURE GIVES MEANING TO LIFE
Meaning of
life and Philosophies of life
Epicurus, a Greek philosopher (341-270 b.C), prescribed a
philosophy of life centred on a controlled choice of pleasures.
Some centuries after that, the Christians attacked Epicurus and
his philosophy violently. Only in the XVII century did a great
Christian author – Benedito Espinoza – sustain the human right
to pleasure.
We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness,
since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be
absent, all our actions should be directed towards attaining it.
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher; Letter to Meneoceus
I do not know how I can conceive the good, if I withdraw the
pleasures of taste, of love, of hearing, or the pleasurable
emotions caused by the sight of a beautiful form.
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher; Extand Remains
Pleasure is our first and kindred good. It is the starting-point
of every choice and of every aversion, and to it we come back,
inasmuch as we make feeling the rule by which to judge of every
good thing.
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher; Letter to Meneoceus
When we are pained because of the absence of pleasure, then, and
then only, do we feel the need of pleasure
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher; Letter to Meneoceus
To habituate one's self, therefore, to simple and inexpensive
diet supplies all that is needful for health, and enables a man
to meet the necessary requirements of life without shrinking,
and it places us in a better condition when we approach at
intervals a costly fare and renders us fearless of fortune.
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher; Letter to Meneoceus
When I say, then, that pleasure should be the end and aim of our
lives, I do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal and the
pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do by some
through ignorance, prejudice, or wilful misrepresentation. By
pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble
in the soul.
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher; Letter to Meneoceus
It is not an unbroken succession of parties and revelry, not
women and children, not the enjoyment of the fish and other
delicacies of a luxurious meal, which produce a pleasant life;
it is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of every choice
and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the
greatest tumults take possession of the soul.
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher; Letter to Meneoceus
Nothing forbids our pleasure except a savage and sad
superstition. For why is it more proper to relieve our hunger
and thirst than to rid ourselves of melancholy?
B. Espinosa, 1632-1677,
Dutch philosopher, The Ethics
To use things and take pleasure in them as far as possible – but
not to the point where we are disgusted with them, for lack of
pleasure –is part of the life of the wise man.
B. Espinosa, 1632-1677,
Dutch philosopher, The Ethics
Comments
Meaning of
life and Philosophies of life
See also:
Life and friendship
Happiness
Existential Thought
Life Best Years
Humour about life
WE SHOULD CONTROL NEGATIVE OPINIONS, DESIRES AND PASSIONS…
The ancient stoic philosophers were the most outstanding
defenders of controlling our passions and bodily desires, as a
path to liberation and meaning. Also philosophers such as Socrates and the
oriental philosophies pleaded the same principle.
Perturbation derives from unwise opinions and judgments.
Cicero, 106-43 b. C., Roman
philosopher and politician, De Finibus bonorum et malorum
Happy is the wise man who, with
moderation and vigour, is serene and in harmony, not consuming
himself with evils, futilities or excitements, nor becoming
enervated by fear, or burning with desires and envy.
Cicero, 106-43 b. C., Roman
philosopher and politician, Tusculan disputation
We must heal our misfortunes by the grateful recollection of
what has been and by the recognition that it is impossible to
make undone what has been done.
Epicurus, 341-270 b.C.,
Greek philosopher, The extant remains
Reducing to the utmost my desires, brings me closer to the gods.
Socrates, 470-399 b.C.,
Greek philosopher, in Diogenes Laerce Lives of Eminent
Philosophers.
It’s an illusion to feed the insatiable desires of our
ungrateful soul, covering it with goods, without ever satisfying
it.
Lucrecius, 98-55 a.C, Roman
poet and philosopher, De rerum natura
The greatest of victories is the one over oneself.
Pali Tripitaka, Buddhist
collection of Holly texts, Dhammapada
It is not the body that is insatiable. The limitlessness of
desire, which condemns us to neediness, dissatisfaction, or
unhappiness, is a disease of the imagination.
A. Comte-Sponville, French
philosopher, Small Treatise
Comments
Meaning of
life and Philosophies of life
See also:
The Human Beings
Existential Thought
Life Best Years
Humour about life
EMOTIONAL UNATTACHMENT AS A WAY TO STOP SUFFERING
Meaning of life and Philosophies of life
Several oriental philosophies of life – Buddhists, Taoists,
Hindus – claim that the denial of the emotions and feelings is
the only way to avoid suffering. Some authors postulate almost
vegetative forms of living, to extirpate pain.
Those who are looking for happiness should pull out the darts
that they have stuck in themselves: the darts of grief, of
desire, of despair.
Pali Tripitaka, Buddhist
collection of Holly texts, Sutta-Nipata
If you are a wise man, avoid the causes of pain: wrath, pride,
deceit, greed, love, hate, delusion, conception, birth, death,
hell and animal desires.
Jaina Sutras, Acaranba
Sutra, Hindu religious texts of the VI and V b. C. century
The mind of the perfect man looks like a mirror – something that
doesn’t lean forward or backward in its response to the world.
It responds to the world but conceals nothing of its own.
Therefore it is able to deal with the world without suffering
pain.
Chuang-Tzu, Taoist thinker,
century III or II b. C., Book of Chuang-Tzu
Do not want to be the possessor of fame. Do not want be the
stockroom of schemes. Do not meditate on the function of things.
You should not be a master of manipulative knowledge. (…) You
should exercise fully what you have received from Nature without
any subjective viewpoint. In short: you should look for vacuous.
Chuang-Tzu, Taoist thinker,
century III or II b. C., Book of Chuang-Tzu
Our capacity for disgust is in close proportion with our
desires; that is, in proportion to the intensity of our
attachment to the things of this world.
Thomas Mann, 1875-1955,
German writer, The Confessions of Félix Krull
See also:
Happiness
Existential Thought
Death
Science and Meaning
HAPPINESS IS IN GOD
Meaning of life and Philosophies of life
The Christian tradition proclaims that happiness is in faith
in the divine.
The Ecclesiastes shows that man without God is in total
ignorance and inevitable misery.
B. Pascal, 1623-1662,
French thinker, Thoughts
When I search for you, my God, I am searching for happiness. I
will look for you in order that my soul lives, because my body
lives from my soul, and my soul lives from you.
Saint Augustine, 354-430,
theologian and philosopher, Confessions
Far from me, far from the heart of your serf, my God, confessing
to you, the idea of finding happiness in whatever the joy!
Saint Augustine, 354-430,
theologian and philosopher, Confessions
Happiness is a joy that is granted not to the impious, but only
to those who serve you through pure love: because you are that
joy! To rejoice from you, in you and by you, that is happiness.
And there is no other.
Saint Augustine, 354-430,
theologian and philosopher, Confessions
Comments
Meaning of
life and Philosophies of life
See also:
The Human Beings
Existential Thought
Death
Life After Death
A POPULAR VISION OF HAPPINESS AS LAZINESS, EATING AND EVEN AS
IGNORANCE
Meaning of
life and Philosophies of life
The Ecclesiastes is a rather atypical text in the framework of
Christianity. It reflects a popular vision that sees happiness
as laziness, eating, drinking and even as ignorance.
So, go your way - eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine
with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
Bible, Ecclesiastes
Don't be overly righteous, and don’t be yourself overly wise.
Why should you destroy yourself?
Bible, Ecclesiastes
Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your
life of vanity, which He has given you: for that is your portion
in life you have to stand under the sun.
Bible, Ecclesiastes
Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls with
labour and chasing after wind.
Bible, Ecclesiastes
In much wisdom is much grief;
he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
Bible, Ecclesiastes
Comments
Meaning of
life and Philosophies of life
See also:
Existential Thought
Life Best Years
Life is Dream
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