there is only one sin and it's refusing to accept feedback from reality
“Whenever disturbing news is delivered to you, bear in mind that no news can ever be relevant to your reasoned choice. Can anyone break news to you that your assumptions or desires are wrong? No way! But they can tell you someone died—even so, what is that to you?” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.18.1–2
Stephen Hanselman • The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
“If anyone can prove and show to me that I think and act in error, I will gladly change it—for I seek the truth, by which no one has ever been harmed. The one who is harmed is the one who abides in deceit and ignorance.”
Stephen Hanselman • The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
EVIL IS SIMPLY GOOD SPOILED Only because He has laid up real goods for us to desire are we able to go wrong by snatching at them in greedy, misdirected ways. The truth is that evil is not a real thing at all, like God. It is simply good spoiled. That is why I say there can be good without evil, but no evil without good. You know what the biologists
... See moreC. S. Lewis • The C. S. Lewis Bible: For Reading, Reflection, and Inspiration
There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.
Ryan Holiday • The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
The phrase “This happened and it is bad” is actually two impressions. The first—“This happened”—is objective. The second—“it is bad”—is subjective.
Ryan Holiday • The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
"There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means." (Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way)