Unhelpful, unless you specify a goal.There is no common benchmark for all the things that
people think are good—except for a few, the ones that affect
us all. So the goal should be a common one—a civic one. If
you direct all your energies toward that, your actions will be
consistent. And so will you.
- The town mouse and the country mouse. Distress and
agitation of the town mouse. - Socrates used to call popular beliefs “the monsters under
the bed”—only useful for frightening children with. - At festivals the Spartans put their guests’ seats in the
shade, but sat themselves down anywhere. - Socrates declining Perdiccas’s invitation “so as to avoid
dying a thousand deaths” (by accepting a favor he couldn’t
pay back). - This advice from Epicurean writings: to think continually
of one of the men of old who lived a virtuous life. - The Pythagoreans tell us to look at the stars at daybreak.
To remind ourselves how they complete the tasks assigned
them—always the same tasks, the same way. And their order,
purity, nakedness. Stars wear no concealment.