Trouble with brilliant and pithy statements is that their wisdom is the end goal, not the method. For example, Epictetus said, "The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best."
How do I turn this into a to-do list? 1. Ask myself whether my friends uplift me or make me feel worse. 2. Make a list of people I spend time with, our activities 3. Think of the people whose presence calls forth my best. That is, when I'm with them I feel smarter, braver, and more loving. anyway, you get the idea. I should turn Epictetus's sayings into a self-help book. Thanks for the pointer to Frances Yates. I'll take a look.Does Epictetus count?
Epictetus totally counts. Probably most self-help books just update the things he said. Marcus Aurelius too.
Pierre Hadot argued that the aphorisms were part of an exercise, reformulating their lessons over and over in different ways as a way to keep them fresh, so that it wasn't just the words they remembered. He was an ex-Jesuit and saw spiritual exercises everywhere in ancient philosophy though. He's well worth reading, he just goes to great lengths to find what he's looking for.Trouble with brilliant and pithy statements is that their wisdom is the end goal, not the method. For example, Epictetus said, "The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best." How do I turn this into a to-do list?
It's been done. Well, an attempt at reviving stoicism has, anyway. I was given Tad Brennan's book as a gift a couple of years ago, but haven't gotten around to reading it. Reddit was pretty excited about William Irving's for a while after an interview with him got posted. It looks like some of them maintained their interest.I should turn Epictetus's sayings into a self-help book.