Daily Stoicism Quote | #85

submitted 5.4 years ago by Had

“What then, is it not possible to be free from faults? It is not possible; but this is possible: to direct your efforts incessantly to being faultless. For we must be content if by never remitting this attention we shall escape at least a few errors. When you have said "Tomorrow I will begin to attend," you must be told that you are saying this: "Today I will be shameless, disregardful of time and place, mean;it will be in the power of others to give me pain, today I will be passionate and envious.

See how many evil things you are permitting yourself to do. If it is good to use attention tomorrow, how much better is it to do so today? If tomorrow it is in your interest to attend, much more is it today, that you may be able to do so tomorrow also, and may not defer it again to the third day.”

-Epictetus, The Discourses

TL;DR: stop procrastinating on making changes, start today.

2 comments

SearchVoatBot 5.4 years ago

This submission was linked from this v/whatever submission by @Delacourt.

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FullSemiAutomatic 5.4 years ago

The prospect of a better me tomorrow somehow always seems alluring at the time. The only trouble is, every time tomorrow comes, it ends up being today.

It's not possible to live in tomorrow any more than it is to live in yesterday. There is only now. If not now, when?

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