210131 What I learned in my studies this morning

Today's Tao:

Cultivate Virtue in yourself, 

And Virtue will be real. 

Cultivate it in the family, 

And Virtue will abound. 

Cultivate it in the village, 

And Virtue will grow. 

Cultivate it in the nation, 

And Virtue will be abundant. 

Cultivate it in the universe,

And Virtue will be everywhere. 

From The Daily Stoic: 

Don't treat philosophy as a side gig. Make it a real part of my life. It is a central point of refreshing my soul. Come to it often to keep steady my course and keep true my aim. 

“Don’t return to philosophy as a task-master, but as patients seek out relief in a treatment of sore eyes, or a dressing for a burn, or from an ointment. Regarding it this way, you’ll obey reason without putting it on display and rest easy in its care.”—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.9

From Eric Hoffer, Part III, Unifying Agents:

Persuasion and Coercion 

The missionary zeal seems rather an expression of some deep misgiving, some pressing feeling of insufficiency at the center. Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already have.

... 

The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse. It is doubtful whether a movement which does not profess some preposterous and patently irrational dogma can be possessed of that zealous drive which “must either win men or destroy the world.”

... 

The passion for proselytizing and the passion for world dominion are both perhaps symptoms of some serious deficiency at the center. It is probably as true of a band of apostles or conquistadors as it is of a band of fugitives setting out for a distant land that they escape from an untenable situation at home. And how often indeed do the three meet, mingle and exchange their parts.

(The True Believer, XIV-88)