L20 · Lens
Voluntary simplicity
Cultivate independence from luxury so that comfort loses its grip and fortune's reversals lose their terror.
Use: Comfort-seeking, fragility, compulsion, fear of loss.
Boundary: Philosophical independence from externals, not self-harm.
Cues
Showing 8 of 8 cues
“It is in his power not to wish for what he has not, but cheerfully to employ what comes to him.”
“He who craves riches feels fear on their account. No man, however, enjoys a blessing that brings anxiety; he is always trying to add a little more. While he puzzles over increasing his wealth, he forgets how to use it. He collects his accounts, he wears out the pavement in the forum, he turns over his ledger; in short, he ceases to be master and becomes a steward.”
QuoteStatus anxiety and wealth comparisonAnticipatory anxiety and future worry1 more related links
Lenses
“Even a place of exile suffices to provide one with necessaries; whole kingdoms do not suffice to provide one with superfluities.”
“‘But I get to wear a crown of gold.’ If you have your heart set on wearing crowns, why not make one out of roses; you will look even more elegant in that.”
“One can avoid opportunities for gratification of the drive [for pleasure], and through long and ever longer periods of non-gratification weaken it and make it wither away. Then, one can impose upon oneself strict regularity in its gratification: by thus imposing a rule upon the drive itself and enclosing its ebb and flow within firm time-boundaries, one has then gained intervals during which one is no longer troubled by it ...”
Zeno chose teaching over court favour
Zeno taught in Athens’ Painted Porch. He declined King Antigonus’ invitations to court and sent associates in his place.
Diogenes throwing away his wooden cup
Diogenes the Cynic, on seeing a child drink water from his hollowed hands, threw away his own wooden cup, demonstrating that practising what you preach means stripping away even small superfluities in action.
“Don't ruin the things you have by wanting what you don't have, but realize that they too are things you once did wish for.”