Darrell

“When Socrates, for example, saw a pile of gold and jewellery being borne in procession through the streets of Athens, he exclaimed, “Look how many things there are which I don’t want.” As Alexander the Great was passing through Corinth, he sought out Diogenes and finally found him sitting under a tree, dressed in rags, with not a drachma to his name. When the most powerful man in the world asked the philosopher if he could do anything to help him, Diogenes replied, “Yes, if you could step out of the way. You are blocking the sun.” Alexander’s soldiers were horrified and steeled themselves for the inevitable outburst of their commander’s famous anger. But he only laughed and remarked that if he were not Alexander, he would certainly like to be Diogenes.”
― Alain de Botton, Status Anxiety

“Nature didn’t tell me: “Don’t be poor.” Nor indeed: “Be rich.” But she does beg me: “Be independent.” CHAMFORT, MAXIMS(1795)”
― Alain de Botton, Status Anxiety

“In every man’s memories there are certain things that he will not reveal to everyone but only to his friends. And there are things that he will not even disclose to his friends, only to himself and even then under a veil of secrecy. But, finally, there are things that he’s afraid of divulging even to himself and every decent man has quite an accumulation of these. It might even be the case that the more respectable a person is the more he will have of them.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground & The Double

“Throughout his Meditations (A.D. 167), the emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius, moving in the unstable world of Roman politics, continually reminded himself that any comment made about his character or achievements had to be subjected to the test of reason before he allowed it to affect his self-conception.”
― Alain de Botton, Status Anxiety