Are
we a soft generation? Do we cry over everything? Do we not have the
heart? Do we lack motivation? Do we love sleep more than we love
success? What is wrong with us? When did we get this notion that
everything should be given to us because we exist? When did we start to
think that we should get things for free? You want a healthy body? Make
the sacrifice and work at it. You want more money? Find
a way to make it and work for it. You want good grades? Study. You want
a better job? Go find it. Someone tells you no? Refuse to listen and
keep pushing. Someone says you can't? Prove them wrong. Cowards blame
other people. I have blamed other people, I have blamed people who were
in my life, exes, parents, the man, ect ect ect. They didn't do it! I
didn't try hard enough. Think for yourself, work for yourself, Live for
yourself. No one else is going to do it for you. So if life is for you
to take, why are you listening to other people? Seek life to its
fullest. “To love. To be loved. To never forget your own
insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the
vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places.
To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or
complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all,
to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to
forget.”
― Arundhati Roy, The Cost of Living
No
matter how hard life hits you, take that punch and get up, the pain will
go away, but success is only up to you. Seek success, never give up.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Cicero on friendship
From Cicero’s late essay, Laelius: On Friendship
‘And so friendship is quite different from all the other things in the world on which we are accustomed to set our hearts. For each and every one of those other objectives is specifically adapted to some single purpose—riches, to be spent; power, to secure obedience; public office, to win praise; pleasure, to enjoy oneself, good health, to be free from pain and make full use of one’s bodily endowments. Friendship, on the other hand, serves a great host of different purposes all at the same time. It whatever direction you turn, it stll remains yours. No barrier can shut it out. It can never be untimely; it can never be in the way. We need friendship all the time, just as we need the proverbial prime necessities of life, fire and water. I am not speaking of ordinary commonplace friendships, delightful and and valuable though they can be. What I have in mind instead is the authentic, truly admirable sort of relationship, the sort that was embodied in those rare pairs of famous friends.
Friendship, then, adds a brighter glow to prosperity and relieves adversity by dividing and sharing the burden. And another of its very remarkable advantages is this. It is unique because of the bright rays of hope it projects into the future: it never allows the spirit to falter or fail. When a man thinks of a true friend, he is looking at himself in the mirror. Even when a friend is absent, he is present all the same. However poor he is, he is rich: however weak, he is strong. And may I attempt to convey an even more difficult concept? Even when he is dead, he is still alive. He is alive because his friends still cherish him, and remember him, and long for him. This means that there is happiness even in his death—he ennobles the existences of those who are left behind.
Take away the bond of kindly feeling from the world, and no house or city can stand. Even the fields will no longer be cultivated […]’
-from Laelius: On Friendship, composed by Cicero in the summer of 44 BCE
‘And so friendship is quite different from all the other things in the world on which we are accustomed to set our hearts. For each and every one of those other objectives is specifically adapted to some single purpose—riches, to be spent; power, to secure obedience; public office, to win praise; pleasure, to enjoy oneself, good health, to be free from pain and make full use of one’s bodily endowments. Friendship, on the other hand, serves a great host of different purposes all at the same time. It whatever direction you turn, it stll remains yours. No barrier can shut it out. It can never be untimely; it can never be in the way. We need friendship all the time, just as we need the proverbial prime necessities of life, fire and water. I am not speaking of ordinary commonplace friendships, delightful and and valuable though they can be. What I have in mind instead is the authentic, truly admirable sort of relationship, the sort that was embodied in those rare pairs of famous friends.
Friendship, then, adds a brighter glow to prosperity and relieves adversity by dividing and sharing the burden. And another of its very remarkable advantages is this. It is unique because of the bright rays of hope it projects into the future: it never allows the spirit to falter or fail. When a man thinks of a true friend, he is looking at himself in the mirror. Even when a friend is absent, he is present all the same. However poor he is, he is rich: however weak, he is strong. And may I attempt to convey an even more difficult concept? Even when he is dead, he is still alive. He is alive because his friends still cherish him, and remember him, and long for him. This means that there is happiness even in his death—he ennobles the existences of those who are left behind.
Take away the bond of kindly feeling from the world, and no house or city can stand. Even the fields will no longer be cultivated […]’
-from Laelius: On Friendship, composed by Cicero in the summer of 44 BCE
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