James Harris > Quotes

“no one pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is occupied with many things—eloquence cannot exist, nor expansive studying—since the mind, when its interests are divided, takes in nothing very deeply, but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed into it.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“There is no reason then, to complain about anyone’s behavior if you cannot endure your own.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“There is nothing the busy man is less occupied with than living: there is nothing that is harder to learn.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“The condition of all who are engrossed is poor, but poorest is the condition of those who labour at engrossments that are not even their own, who regulate their sleep by that of another, their walk by the pace of another, who are under orders—loving and hating.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“to be satisfied on all occasions, and cheerful;”
― James Harris, Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“And you will give yourself relief, if you live your every act in life as if it were the last,”
― James Harris, Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Men treat with little respect the most precious thing in the world; but they are blind to it because it is not physical, because it does not come to the sight of the eyes, and for this reason it is counted as a very cheap thing—or of almost no value at all.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“The thought for to-day is one which I discovered in Epicurus; I want to cross over into the enemy's camp, not to leave my own, but as a scout.  He says: "To be content with poverty is an honourable estate." Indeed, if you are content, it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
― James Harris, Letters from a Stoic: Complete (Letters 1 - 124) Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“If you are pretending to be a character beyond your strength, you have degraded your original self and quit being the character which you can support.”
― James Harris, The Enchiridion: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Like when our neighbour’s boy has broken a cup, or something similar, we are ready to say, “this type of things can and do happen”; be assured, then, that when your own cup is broken, you should act in the same way as when another’s cup is broken. Now apply this to greater things. Is the child or wife of another person dead? There is no one who wouldn’t say, “This is unfortunately a part of life.” But if anyone’s own child happens to die, it is immediately, “Look what has happened to me!”
― James Harris, The Enchiridion: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Do not waste the remainder of your life in thoughts about others, when you do not require these thoughts. For you lose the opportunity of doing something else when you have such thoughts as these, what is such a person doing, and why, and what is he saying, and what is he thinking of, and what is he contriving, and whatever else of the kind makes us wander away from the observation of our own ruling power.”
― James Harris, Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“The social life of humans therefore, had two elements for the foundation: the impulse to work, obligated by the external environment, and love, which made man reluctant to be dispossessed of his sexual object, his woman, and made the woman reluctant to lose part of herself which had been separated from her - her child.”
― James Harris, Civilization and Its Discontents: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“To my belief there are three types: powerful diversion, which aims to avoid our misery; temporary satisfaction, which aims to reduce it; and substance abuse, which makes us unresponsive to it. One of these is necessary.”
― James Harris, Civilization and Its Discontents: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“prohibitions essentially convey that there is only one type of sexual life for all, and it ignores the variations, whether they be inherent or developed, in the sexual configuration of men and women; for many it cuts them off from sexual enjoyment and becomes a major source of unhappiness.”
― James Harris, Civilization and Its Discontents: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“he was a man who looked to what should be done, not to the reputation which was to be gained by his acts.”
― James Harris, Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“There is no real doubt that it is good for one to have appointed a guardian over themselves, and to have someone who you may look up to, someone who you may regard as a witness of your thoughts.”
― James Harris, Letters from a Stoic: Complete (Letters 1 - 124) Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Do not waste the remainder of your life in thoughts about others, when you do not require these thoughts.”
― James Harris, Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Then, in combat, you may be thrown onto the floor, dislocate your arm, twist your ankle, and, after all, lose the fight. When you have weighed this all up, if your inclination is to still train, go forward into combat. Otherwise, I’m warning you, you will behave like children who sometimes play as wrestlers, sometimes as gladiators, sometimes blow a trumpet, and sometimes act upset, when they mimic the shows they have admired.”
― James Harris, The Enchiridion: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“From him I also learned the endurance of labor, and to want little, and to work with my own hands. Not to meddle with other people's affairs, and not to listen to slander.”
― James Harris, Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Don’t demand that events have to happen as you want them to; but wish them to happen as they happen to, and you will go on well.”
― James Harris, The Enchiridion: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.”
― James Harris, Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Anytus”
― James Harris, The Apology of Socrates: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“And so there is no reason for you to think that any man has lived long because he has grey hairs or wrinkles; he has not lived long—he has existed long.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“No one keeps death in view, no one refrains from far-reaching hopes; some men, indeed, even arrange for things that lie beyond life—huge masses of tombs and dedications of public works and gifts for their funeral. Such pretentious displays, but, in very truth, the funerals of such men ought to be conducted by the light of torches, and end as though they had lived but the tiniest span.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“They cry out that they have been fools, because they have not really lived, and that they will live the future in leisure if only they escape from this illness; then at last they reflect how uselessly they have striven for things which they did not enjoy, and how all their effort has gone for nothing.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“if you take only those things which are truly your own and view what belongs to others as it really is, then no one can control you, no one can restrict you; you will find fault with no one, you will accuse no one, you will do nothing against your”
― James Harris, The Enchiridion: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“It would be unnecessary to mention who, but those that have expressed their loathing for every act of their years, and with their own lips have given testimony against themselves; but by these complaints have changed neither themselves nor others. For when they have vented their feelings in words, they fall back into their usual round. Heaven knows! Such lives as these, though they shall continue to exist for thousands of years, will shrink into the merest span; vices will swallow up any amount of time.”
― James Harris, On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“look to nothing else, not even for a moment, except to reason;”
― James Harris, Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“Because such a soul will never be at rest; in waiting for the future it will lose the present blessings which it might enjoy. And there is no difference between grief for something lost and the fear of losing it.”
― James Harris, Letters from a Stoic: Complete (Letters 1 - 124) Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“tolerate ignorant people who form opinions without consideration.”
― James Harris, Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader