elsagold: the WUMBLOG

personal philosophy

I want to read your personal philosophies, writ small. send me a line or two. 

from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations: 

14. As a part, you inhere in the Whole. You will vanish into that which gave you birth; or rather, you will be transmuted once more into the creative Reason of the universe. 

17. Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.

19. The man whose heart is palpitating for fame after death does not reflect that out of all those who remember him every one will himself soon be dead also, and in course of time the next generation after that, until in the end, after flaring and sinking by turns, the final spark of memory is quenched. Furthermore, even supposing that those who remember you were never to die at all, nor their memories to die either, yet what is that to you? Clearly, in your grave, nothing; and even in your lifetime, what is the good of praise - unless maybe to subserve some lesser design? Surely, then, you are making an inopportune rejection of what Nature has given you today, if all your mind is sent on what men will say of you tomorrow. 

my own belief: 

my own one life can not be lived under the rule of the dreams of parents or teachers, the visions of others, controlled by anxieties developed from social pressures and the omnipresent desire for fame and recognition. to seek what is real and true for the heart, and move from that point (however changing), is the only way — not by moulding a life directed outward and meant for all others to see (and mis-see). this is how I mean to live. 

what is your personal philosophy?