201225 What I learned in my studies this morning

Today's Tao:

From Cornutos of Libya:

A contemporary of Seneca, Cornutos was widely read and widely admired for his knowledge.  He mostly kept his head down during the reigns of the crazy emperors, until he managed to piss off Nero (as everyone seemed to at one point or another.  For suggesting that 400 volumes might be a bit much for Nero to write in a history of Rome, he was banished.

(Lives of the Stoics, pp. 209-211)

From The Daily Stoic: 

Find a balance between work and life.  A mind constantly struggling with problems is a mind burned out and made weak.  Just as muscles after a hard workout, the mind sometimes needs to relax and recover.

From Eric Hoffer, Part III, Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice, Make-Believe:

Things Which Are Not, cont. 

People will die for symbols: a flag, a national myth, a utopian idea. This applies both to followers of the Cause and to its opponents, as well.

Hitler's vision of a thousand-year Reich gave his troops something to strive for.  It simultaneously removed hope from those it persecuted.

"To the former it gave the feeling that in fighting for the Third Reich they were in league with eternity, while the latter felt that to struggle against Hitler's new order was to defy inexorable fate."

(The True Believer, XIII-55)