Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer; his essays “Wisdom of Life” and “Counsels and Maxims,” although not explicitly Stoical, have a distinctly Stoical tone.
William B. Irvine • A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
"Unchecked emotions can distort judgement and lead us away from ethical choices, but emotions that are understood and integrated into our thought processes are essential to making wise and moral decisions." (Martha Nussbaum).
The judges, however, wisely rejected that argument, quoting Thurgood Marshall's observation that given the mysteries of human motivation, “it would be unwise to presume as a matter of law that human beings of one definable group will not discriminate against other members of their group.”
Randall Kennedy • Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
The Germans (of course) have a word for it: herzensbildung, training one’s heart to see the full humanity in another.
David Brooks • How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
Virtue cannot be limited to those with the means to practice it.
Shai Held • Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life
view. For instance, in the mid-1700s David Hume wrote a lot about the “natural benevolence” of human beings. And a century later, even Charles Darwin himself attributed an “instinct of sympathy” to our species. But
Dalai Lama • The Art of Happiness, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Handbook for Living
Dan Holenstein • Notesnook
Social Justice approaches that focus solely on group identity and neglect individuality and universality are doomed to fail for the simple reasons that people are individuals and share a common human nature.
Helen Pluckrose • Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody
“Her intellectual gifts do but minister to a moral character that is the noblest and best balanced I have ever met with in life.”