socrates on self-confidence
stand up for your own blief, find a way to build up our own confidence rather than swinged by opinions from others
human are similar to sheep, we follow someone passionatly, and have the horrile of breaking away from a group
way do we follow people specially important people: cuz we imagine they know what they are talking about
on deciding whether to trust someone or not, a huge advantage is to talk to them in person
great questions like why are you living the life you're leading
there is usually big inadequicy in what they believe confidently
desire to find the truth and challenge the lazy assumptions rather than to make troubles
what is a good life? what is self-control? what is justise? what leads to happiness?
socrates test to good thought: 1, examine the beliefs taken by people as common sense; 2, try to find an exception for this; 3, if found, then the statement is false or at least need to be adjusted; 4, try to have a new statement which include the exception; 5, keep to find the new exception and do the same thing.
logic, demenstration to why you think it's wrong.
every can think and resposible to think.
we tend to listen to ideas whether they are well thought out or not
not every opinion is worth listening to
he refuse to believe that not only because the major population believe it make this right.
shift from passively accept opinions to develop our own idea, that is from sheep to philosipher
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epicurus on happiness
the reason why we think happiness is hard to find that's because we looking for it in the wrong place.
we don't need to feel guilty when we try to have happiness.
what we want is not always what we need, not material things
we don't know what we really need, what we indeed need is: 1, friends: invite friends and ask them to come over and live together at all time. consider we are you drinking or eating with rather than what are you drinking or eating; 2, freedom - economic free, financial independence; 3, analysed life - reflect on what's our worries, what is troubling us. if we have time to think it through, our anxiouty quickly demolish. find time and space for quiet thinking about our lives
advertising is bad!! make us feel that things are associate with what we need.
remind us times after times
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Seneca on anger
because they are too optimistic or too hopeful
get suprised about bad things happen.
wrong expections about the life.
the world not always go the way we expect
be more passive. follow the direction you don't want to go than to kick against some thing you can't change, our reason help us to know what we can change and what we can't
be psycalogically prepared about something which didn't our of control.
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Montaigne on self-esteem
if you're among the most talented people and feel the inadequicy depression on yourself, montaigne is the one to turn to. he knows what makes us feel bad about ourselves.
3 aspects: awkward about our body; others judgement about our habit customs, disapprovaled; intellegent inadequicy, we are not as smart as we should be.
write a book about exactly how/what he is
reality
we surround to the role models not give space to what we actually like, this can lead us to self hatrayed when we fail to make the grade.
he tell us about his everyday life to encourage us to accept the ordinary in ourselves.
human natural
speak of the truth with simplicity and great honesty.
other philosophers think having a mind can lead us to happiness and which is the reason that give us a chance to fullfillment, while he thinks to the the extent we have our problems is because we have reason have minds.
awkward about our body: we are half the animal, we have so much in common with the creatures on the farm yard. every one shit. look at animals they are in many ways equal to us. we should accept our body with good grace and touch of humor.
there is no reason why things should be complicated in order to be true.
having a big brain also leads us to have arrogant to think what we know is right and impose that vision to other people.
every socialty has its idea about what is normal to eat wear and say. if you are away from this you're easily be judged with prejudice and make fun of or worse.
in history, people decide what is normal and what is not and persecuted those who don't fit.
go travelling - both body and mind - to find out what we think abnormal is normal to other people.
any one country has its prejudice but travel around countries lose the grip of any one of the countries.
it's not travelling just broad your mind it also help you to realise how narrow your mind was.
not blind multiculturalist, not all the culture are as good as one another.
but try to find the way people decide what's the way of what is good and bad. habit rather than reason.
with global perspective of us, we all grow more accepting not only others but also the perspective of ourselves.
we'll gain less constraining identities as the citizen of the world.
intellectual one: wisedom has nothing to do with a university qualification.
he thinks: wisedom = humility, modesty and knowing the limitation of intellectual.
don't need to know any thing and many things are out of control. limitation of their mind and body.
but not that education/learning is useless. he simply observe that high education reciever isnot any happier or wiser than those who don't.
you can learn the facts and pick up information but you're not guranteed to apply this to life.
exam system rewards the wrong thing - learning rather than wisedo
questions: what should one do when anxious? what makes good parents? how can we tell if some one is in love or infatuated? should one worry what others think? how much love should one have for onself? what should one do if one is shy?
one final tip: imagine they are sitting on the toilet. they sit on asses.
quote from classical bible.
not be humiliated by what we are like.
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schopenhauer on love
love is very important, but happiness has nothing to do with it.
unconciously propagate spices - the will to life
we are all the slaves to life.
why do we fancy certain individuals rather than others? we unconsiously think he or she helps us to make healthy well balanced children.
propagate spices and find some one to love and happiness must come off badly, and individuals suffers the most.
human existent is kind of mistake.
we have no choice but to fall in love, biology have more power than reason.
we're not unhappy by accident, we impel to mate and bring the springs up and only love can get us to do so.
ugliest animals live under severe condition also desparate to propagate. we devote to reproduction without thinking about happiness.
when be rejected - it's not we they reject, it's they think we'd not be perfect for their children, and others may come and find us the perfect guy to make springs good.
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Nietzsche on hardship
hardship should be welcomed to those one who seek happiness. like mountain climber.
top - finest views - hardest
exordinary efforts
hardship like: suffuring, desolation, sickness, ill treatment in dignities, profound self-contempt, the tortune of misselftrust, the reckness(??) of the vanquished
key lesson: any achievement is born from constant struggle and hard work.
there is not easy success in his eyes.
don't talk about in born talent and gifts
people acquire greatness and genius, they did so by overcoming difficulties
difficulty is normal, we shouldn't panic or give up when we experience it.
we feel the pain because the gap between who we are now and the person who we can idilly be. it's because we can't master the ingrediant of happiness straight away the way we suffer as much as we do.
but it not enough just to suffer, if hardship is all it took to be fulfilled, then all of us would be happy.
the challenge is to learn how to respond well to the suffering, perhaps to use it to create something beautiful.
virtue of the hardship and failure
I've been to the worst, it can't get any worse.
in every life must have some failures, but it the manner in which the failure has been met would make life fulfilled.
we should look our life like gardeners: roots are ugly, but flowers are beautiful, so we should try to cultivate things in life like that. it's a metaphor.entirely up to us.
live your life dangoursly.life is risky business.
one of the worst is head for the pub. hate drinking alcohol
happiness doesn't come from escaping them but cultivating them, turing them to your advantages.
the last thing we should do with our sorrows is drama(??) it gives the vital clue to what's wrong in our lives and point the way to happiness
church is similar to a pub in his view. problems in bible regarded as assets.
dull pain and weaken the problems to become a chance to overcome.
not pretend that they want things that difficult to get.
not deny the wishes and pain
though hard but he's not miserable. he often talks about fulfillment. he does talk about something richer than the thought of cozy well being we could imagine
people of religous are too shy and timid
but overcoming the mountain and the views we see is the reward of it. that does not kill me make me stronger
pain is a vital component to happiness, things make us suffer is not always bad to us, and things make us feel good not always good for us. to abolish suffering is a supreme idiocy.
