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    “It’s a disgrace in this life when the soul surrenders first while the body refuses to.”

    Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 383)

      “It’s a tricky balance, attempting to find resonance in someone’s story without reducing your suffering to sameness.”

      Suleika Jaoaud, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 338)

        “Gazing up at the Milky Way, I remember when all I wanted is what I have in this moment. Sitting on the kitchen floor of my old apartment, sicker than I’d ever felt, my heart fractured into ten thousand tiny pieces, I needed to believe that there was a truer, more expansive and fulfilling version of my life out there. I had no interest in existing as a martyr, forever defined by the worst things that had happened to me. I needed to believe that when your life has become a cage, you can loosen the bars and reclaim your freedom. I told myself again and again, until I believed my own words: It is possible for me to alter the course of my becoming.“

        Suleika Jaoaud, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 324)

          “It’s not at all that we have too short a time to live, but that we squander a great deal of it. Life is long enough, and it’s given in sufficient measure to do many great things if we spend it well. But when it’s poured down the drain of luxury and neglect, when it’s employed to no good end, we’re finally driven to see that it has passed before we even recognized it passing. And so it is—we don’t receive a short life, we make it so.”

          Seneca, On the Brevity of Life, The Daily Stoic (Page 382)

            “We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known: we have only to follow the thread of the hero path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god: where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; and where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”

            Joseph Campbell, via Sunbeams (Page 154)

              “In the evening of our lives we shall be examined in love.”

              St. John of the Cross, via Sunbeams (Page 154)

                “The mind must be given relaxation—it will rise improved and sharper after a good break. Just as rich fields must not be forced—for they will quickly lose their fertility if never given a break—so constant work on the anvil will fracture the force of the mind. But it regains its powers if it is set free and relaxed for a while. Constant work gives rise to a certain kind of dullness and feebleness in the rational soul.”

                Seneca, On Tranquility Of Mind, The Daily Stoic (Page 381)

                  “You can’t guarantee that people won’t hurt or betray you—they will, be it a breakup or something as big and blinding as death. But evading heartbreak is how we miss our people, our purpose. I make a pact with myself and send it off into the desert: May I be awake enough to notice when love appears and bold enough to pursue it without knowing where it will lead.“

                  Suleika Jaoaud, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 318)

                    “You can’t force clarity when there is none to be had yet.”

                    Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms (Page 315)

                      “Most of us are afraid of dying. But sometimes this fear begs the question: To protect what exactly? For a lot of people the answer is: hours of television, gossiping, gorging, wasting potential, reporting to a boring job, and on and on and on. Except, in the strictest sense, is this actually a life? Is this worth gripping so tightly and being afraid of losing? It doesn’t sound like it.”

                      Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 379)

                        “It’s easier to quote, to rely on the wise words of others. Especially when the people you’re deferring to are such towering figures! It’s harder (and more intimidating) to venture out on your own and express your own thoughts. But how do you think those wise and true quotes from those towering figures were created in the first place? Your own experiences have value. You have accumulated your own wisdom too. Stake your claim. Put something down for the ages—in words and also in example.”

                        Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 378)