266

We are all stronger than we think.

But only if we believe we are.

265

“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.”

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

264

I am just as amazed as I am appalled, as I am amused by this existence, by this world I live in.

263

Yes—the world depends on you.

Because you are a part of us.

It’s all too easy to dismiss our contribution to change when we see it only possible through collective effort, yet we forget that the collective effort merely consists of a collection of individuals constantly thinking to themselves: “what can I do to be the change I seek to make?” It’s only possible because we each play our part in moving the ratchet forward.

262

Stoicism isn’t self-help.

It’s humanity-help—and you are helped because you are a part of it, just like everyone else around you.

It’s simply about understanding that we each have a role to play, and that we cannot fulfill the duties of our role if we wallow in our own misery. We can move forward, regardless of we each personally might feel.

261

Too much to remember, and even more left to do.

What more could I ask for?

260

Just as we should not overburden ourselves with the innumerable tragedies and injustices that pervade us in this world we live in,

we should neither block them out by shuttering our minds with complacency, or by turning our backs towards ones crying out for help.

We need not empathize with those that suffer unjustly to the extent that it drags down our own psyche. But whether or not we hear those cries for help, regardless of how desperate we might perceive the situation to be, it does not change the fact that we have a calling. It does not change the course of action, and the course of action is always to do better—and to be better. To not approach the world and the others around us with presumptuousness and contempt, but rather with an eagerness to do what’s right and discover the truth together.

259

You have so much left to give.

Don’t waste it.

258

Paradoxically, our greatest moments where we feel we have abundant creativity and boundless freedom are when we specifically impose constraints on our thought, on our feelings, and our conceptions of right and wrong. A sense of freedom is primarily perceived when we are able to control our fate beyond the weight of our circumstances—when our actions directly impact the outcome of events in our lives. And when we feel trapped amidst suffering and mired in uncontrollable chaos, it is because we have lost control; it is because the floodgates of circumstance have opened, and we have little means by which to make sense of the world around us in a deluge of emotion.

Discipline equals freedom because it reflects the underlying, perpetual interplay between reason and emotion embedded within the human condition.

The hard truth to accept is that humans cannot reliably grasp the concept of truly unlimited, boundless freedom. We simply don’t know what to do with ourselves when there are an infinite number of choices to make. We crave control—not necessarily freedom.

257

There are very few questions in our world in the context of solving interesting problems that are served well by the multiple choice question. Why, then, do we insist on using this so often in teaching others?

In the vast majority of challenges that we face, we must think. We must weigh all possible solutions equally, understanding that each have their own consequences that we can and cannot foresee, and, more importantly, remember that sometimes there are no solutions.

The multiple choice question begins with the premise of crassly removing all the nuance from topics that are endlessly nuanced. To produce leaders, we cannot hide from nuance. Oversimplifying is not conducive to anything but ignorance.