SR12 · Module
The Ruling Faculty Council of Exemplars
Consulting an internal jury of historical and philosophical exemplars (Antoninus Pius, Socrates, Seneca, Epictetus, Cato, Diogenes, Chekhov, Hawking, Hollowell, Jordan, Franklin) to audit decisions and model composure under pressure.
Cues
Showing 14 of 14 cues
“To help others and be eager to share, not to be a pessimist, and never to doubt your friends’ affection for you.”
“I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct.”
“But, on the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it ...”
“Although I cannot move and I have to speak through a computer, in my mind I am free.”
“Concentrating hard on something that is important is ... I can’t succeed at all without doing it. I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span.”
“[Chekhov] made a vow to himself: no more bowing and apologising to people; no more complaining and blaming; no more disorderly living and wasting time. The answer to everything was work and love, work and love.”
“To be ashamed only of what was really shameful, and to ignore men’s low opinion of other things.”
· Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 6.58; Robin Hard translation in Sayings and Anecdotes (2012)
“When someone said to Diogenes, ‘Most people laugh at you’, he replied, ‘And doubtless donkeys laugh at them; but just as they pay no heed to the donkeys, I pay none to them.’”
“A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it.”
“The evening being come, I return home and go to my study; at the entrance I pull off my peasant-clothes, covered with dust and dirt, and put on my noble court dress, and thus becomingly re-clothed I pass into the ancient courts of the men of old, where, being lovingly received by them, I am fed with that food which is mine alone; where I do not hesitate to speak with them, and to ask for the reason of their actions, and they in their benignity answer me.”
Rusticus: read attentively
From his teacher Quintus Junius Rusticus, Marcus learned to read attentively rather than skimming and not to be satisfied with superficial knowledge.
Donald L. Hollowell: smart perseverance under injustice
Civil-rights attorney Donald Hollowell fought uphill across segregated Georgia day after day, winning the desegregation of the University of Georgia and freeing Martin Luther King Jr. while enduring hostile courts and constant danger without losing his composure: 'you can't get angry; you have to get smart.
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.
Cato ignores fashion
The Stoic Roman senator Cato deliberately ignored fashion and dressed differently, not for vainglory, but to accustom himself to being ashamed only of what was truly shameful.