“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has…… Continue Reading
The best life is the examined life
Category Archives: The art of living
Emotions and the Good Life
For the past several years, I’ve been thinking about what role emotions play in our lives. Are they merely irrational bodily reactions to external stimuli? Can they be modified or changed? Can a person change their disposition to be angry at the slightest provocation? Do they just get in way of our rational deliberations? Or are emotions necessary for properly…… Continue Reading
The Art of Living
“I did nothing today”–“What? Did you not live? That is not only the most fundamental but the most illustrious of your occupations.” Montaigne, Essays, III, 13, “On Experience” For Montaigne, living is an art and living well is not a task that should be left for our two week vacations or right before we turn out the light at…… Continue Reading
Academic vs. Practical Philosophy
“There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live in accordance with its dictates, a life of…… Continue Reading