201211 What I learned in my studies this morning

Tao for Today

From The Daily Stoic:

Do not go looking for a fight, but do not shirk from one that is necessary. Cowardice robs from us. Be brave. Be dignified. 

(p. 367) 

From Eric Hoffer, Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice:

To ripen a person for self-sacrifice he must be stripped of his individual identity and distinctiveness. He must cease to be . . . a human atom with an existence bound by birth and death.... When asked who he is, his automatic response is that he is a German, a Russian, a Japanese, a Christian, a Muslim, a member of a certain tribe or family. He has no purpose, worth and destiny apart of the collective body; and as long as the body lives he cannot really die. 

(The True Believer: XIII-44, Identification With A Collective Whole)

From Arius of Alexandria:

Focus on the four: justice, honesty, self-control, and courage.

. . . qualities — one he illustrated well in his own life — philoponia, or industriousness.

(Lives of the Stoics, pp. 169-176)