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#181 Your Attitude
From: Man's Search for MeaningDiscuss this Big Idea in the Forums!
"...Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
~ Viktor Frankl from Man's Search for Meaning
Frankl, a survivor of concentration camps, reminds of the powerful truth that, no matter one's circumstances, we ultimately have responsibility to choose how we will perceive any given situation.
This message is echoed among the great teachers:
From Marcus Aurelius: "Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible."
To the Buddha: "Our life is shaped by our mind. We become what we think."
And countless others.
Are you owning your attitude?
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"Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him -- mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp. I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost."
From: Man's Search for MeaningDiscuss this Big Idea in the Forums!
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Philosophy takes as her aim the state of happiness…she shows us what are real and what are only apparent evils. She strips men's minds of empty thinking, bestows a greatness that is solid and administers a check to greatness where it is puffed up and all an empty show; she sees that we are left no doubt about the difference between what is great and what is bloated.
~ Seneca
Quotes on: Wisdom, Philosopher, Happiness, Doubt
