Penny McLean. Shame Shame Shame. Tu t'en vas. Longfellow Serenade. Deine Spuren im Sand. The Hustle. Van McCoy. Jean-Claude Borelly.
I Can Do It. Oh Boy. I'm On Fire. I Santo California. Ein Lied zieht hinaus in die Welt. Rod Stewart. Guitar King. Hank The Knife. Juke Box Jive. Denny Christian. Ich trink' auf dein Wohl Marie. Frank Zander. Telly Savalas. Reach Out I'll Be There. Gloria Gaynor. Wenn du denkst du denkst dann denkst du nur du denkst. Dance The Kung Fu.
Disco Stomp. Hamilton Bohannon. Morning Sky. Wart auf mich. Die schwarze Barbara. Imagine Me Imagine You. I'm Not In Love.
Down By The River. Barry White. Down Down. Status Quo. Daddy Cool. Boney M. Frank Farian. Let Your Love Flow.
Bellamy Brothers. Ein Bett im Kornfeld. Girls Girls Girls. Dancing Queen. In Zaire. Johnny Wakelin. Die kleine Kneipe. Jeans On. David Dundas. Mamma mia. A Glass Of Champagne. Schmidtchen Schleicher. Nico Haak. Save Your Kisses For Me. Brotherhood Of Man. Ricky King. Fly Robin Fly. Silver Convention. River Lady. Roger Whittaker. Don't Go Breaking My Heart. The Lies In Your Eyes. Aber bitte mit Sahne. Und es war Sommer. Money Money Money.
I Love To Love. Tina Charles. Love To Love You Baby. Donna Summer. Silver Bird. Tina Rainford. Beautiful Noise. New York Groove. Lieder der Nacht. Bohemian Rhapsody. Komm unter meine Decke. Disco Duck. My Little World. Wild Bird. Charly Brown. Two Man Sound. You Sexy Thing. Hot Chocolate. Living Next Door To Alice. Yes Sir I Can Boogie. Ma Baker. Magic Fly. Knowing Me Knowing You. Oh Susi. Sorry I'm A Lady. Porque te vas. Queen Of China Town.
Amanda Lear. Costa Cordalis. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. Santa Esmeralda. Don't Cry For Me Argentina. Julie Covington. It's Your Life. If You Leave Me Now.
Lost In France. Bonnie Tyler. Standing In The Rain. John Paul Young. I Feel Love. Under The Moon Of Love. Black Is Black. Belle Epoque. Rock Bottom. It's A Game. Bay City Rollers. A far l'amore comincia tu - Liebelei. Tanze Samba mit mir. Tony Holiday. Tarzan ist wieder da. Ti amo. Another Funny Honeymoon. Hotel California. Umberto Tozzi. So You Win Again.
Don't Leave Me This Way. Thelma Houston. Livin' Thing. Lady In Black. Uriah Heep. Laurent Voulzy. David Bowie. The Name Of The Game. Rivers Of Babylon. Mull Of Kintyre. Night Fever. La Bionda. It's A Heartache. Love Is In The Air. Stayin' Alive. Baker Street. Gerry Rafferty. You're The Greatest Lover.
Mexican Girl. Dancing In The City. Marshall Hain. Oh Carol. Follow Me. Buenos dias Argentina. Und dabei liebe ich euch beide. Take A Chance On Me. For A Few Dollars More. Mama Leone. Kiss You All Over. Automatic Lover. Dee D. Was wird sein, fragt der Schlumpf. Bernie Paul. Ich zeige dir mein Paradies. Summer Nights. Village People. Plastic Bertrand. Lay Love On You. Luisa Fernandez. Mary's Boy Child. No Hollywood Movie. Lesley Hamilton. Stumblin' In. I Can't Stand The Rain.
Du, die Wanne ist voll. Surfin' USA. Leif Garett. Follow Me Follow You. Summer Night City. So bist du. Born To Be Alive. Patrick Hernandez. El Lute. Heart Of Glass. We Don't Talk Anymore. Pop Muzik. Bright Eyes. Art Garfunkel. Dschingis Khan. Thom Pace. Some Girls. A Walk In The Park. Nick Straker Band. Trojan Horse. Ring My Bell. Anita Ward. Gimme Gimme Gimme. Can you start with that step today? We underestimate our capabilities just as much and just as dangerously as we overestimate other abilities.
Cultivate the ability to judge yourself accurately and honestly. You must be a unified human being, either good or bad. We have multiple sides to ourselves—conflicting wants, desires, and fears.
The outside world is no less confusing and contradictory. Not for long, anyway. We have a choice: to stand with the philosopher and focus strenuously on the inside, or to behave like a leader of a mob, becoming whatever the crowd needs at a given moment. If we do not focus on our internal integration—on self-awareness—we risk external disintegration. Who wishes to live in deception—tripped up, mistaken, undisciplined, complaining, in a rut?
No one. In one of his famous letters, Seneca observes how often powerful people are slaves to their money, to their positions, to their mistresses, even—as was legal in Rome—to their slaves. Take an inventory of your obligations from time to time. How many of these are self-imposed?
How many of them are truly necessary? Are you as free as you think? Remember: even what we get for free has a cost, if only in what we pay to store it—in our garages and in our minds. As you walk past your possessions today, ask yourself: Do I need this? Is it superfluous? What is it costing me? These stories, however gratifying to create, are inherently misleading. It might make you feel good to dominate the conversation and make it all about you, but how do you think it is for everyone else?
Do you think people are really enjoying the highlights of your high school football days? Is this really the time for another exaggerated tale of your sexual prowess? Sure, you could think about it that way. Yet you hand over your mind to anyone who comes along, so they may abuse you, leaving it disturbed and troubled— have you no shame in that? We hand it over willingly to social media, to television, to what other people are doing, thinking, or saying.
We sit down with our families, but within minutes we have our phones out. To the Stoics, this is an abomination. They know that the world can control our bodies—we can be thrown in jail or be tossed about by the weather.
But the mind? We must protect it. You must choose whether to be loved by these friends and remain the same person, or to become a better person at the cost of those friends. Ask yourself about the people you meet and spend time with: Are they making me better? Do they encourage me to push forward and hold me accountable? Or do they drag me down to their level? Now, with this in mind, ask the most important question: Should I spend more or less time with these folks? The soul should have someone it can respect, by whose example it can make its inner sanctum more inviolable.
Happy is the person who can improve others, not only when present, but even when in their thoughts! He taught no classes. He gave no interviews. His bold and brave example is what made him such a commonly cited and quoted philosopher. The economist Adam Smith had a similar concept, which he called the indifferent spectator. Someone who can quietly admonish us if we are considering doing something lazy, dishonest, or selfish. But anyone who can be restricted, coerced, or pushed into something against what they will is a slave.
Their work demands they wear a suit. It will require—inevitably—realizing they are unable to say what they actually think. Worse, it demands that they become a different type of person or do bad things. Is that what you want? What if they simply thought they were doing the right thing—for them, even for you?
Whether you agree or not, how radically would this lens change your perspective on otherwise offensive or belligerent actions? Is it not the case that plenty of times something we thought was a disaster turned out to be, with the passage of time, a lucky break?
This sense of being wronged is a simple awareness problem. We need to remember that all things are guided by reason—but that it is a vast and universal reason that we cannot always see. That the surprise hurricane was the result of a butterfly flapping its wings a hemisphere away or that misfortune we have experienced is simply the prelude to a pleasant and enviable future. Ego is more than just off-putting and obnoxious.
In this sense, ego and self-deception are the enemies of the things we wish to have because we delude ourselves into believing that we already possess them. So we must meet ego with the hostility and contempt that it insidiously deploys against us—to keep it away, if only for twenty-four hours at a time.
The longest and the shortest life, then, amount to the same, for the present moment lasts the same for all and is all anyone possesses. That is, wanting the past to be more than what it was different, better, still here, etc. Talk about ungrateful! If you enjoy all of it, it will be enough. It can last a whole lifetime. Not everyone is so lucky. This gives you unthinkable power to alter your circumstances and the circumstances of others. And remember that with power comes responsibility.
If your choices are beautiful, so too will you be. You are not the car you drive. You might look beautiful today, but if that was the result of vain obsession in the mirror this morning, the Stoics would ask, are you actually beautiful?
A body built from hard work is admirable. A body built to impress gym rats is not. Not how things appear, but what effort, activity, and choices they are a result of. Those emotions you feel, as real as they are, come from the inside, not the outside. The cause is within us. Born in Bombay when it was still under British control, de Mello was an amalgam of many different cultures and perspectives: East, West; he even trained as a psychotherapist.
You are always the one in control. The cause of irritation— or our notion that something is bad—that comes from us, from our labels or our expectations.
And this wisdom has been repeated and independently discovered in every century and every country since time began. The point is not to wish for these adversities, but for the virtue that makes adversities bearable. In his brief time in office, he faced a bitterly divided country as well as a bitterly and internally divided Republican Party. You are very much in the habit of yearning for those same things.
But this is entirely the trait of a base person, when you can, at any moment, find such a retreat in yourself. For nowhere can you find a more peaceful and less busy retreat than in your own soul—especially if on close inspection it is filled with ease, which I say is nothing more than being well-ordered.
Treat yourself often to this retreat and be renewed. Are you looking forward to the weekend so you can have some peace and quiet? Maybe, you think, after things settle down or after I get this over with. But how often has that ever actually worked? We can sit with our eyes closed and feel our breath go in and out.
We can turn on some music and tune out the world. We can turn off technology or shut off those rampant thoughts in our head. That will provide us peace. Nothing else. Or miss so many obvious things? Begin with awareness and reflection. Not just once, but every single second of every single day. To put it briefly, this sickness is an unrelenting distortion of judgment, so things that are only mildly desirable are vigorously sought after.
How could such smart people have been so foolish? These people knew the system, knew how the markets were supposed to work, and had managed billions, if not trillions, of dollars.
And yet, almost to a person, they were wrong—and wrong to the tune of global market havoc. Greed was what led people to create complex markets that no one understood in the hope of making a quick buck. Greed caused other people to make trades on strange pools of debt. Greed prevented anyone from calling out this situation for what it was—a house of cards just waiting for the slightest breeze to knock it all down. What lapses in judgment might your vices be causing you?
And how can your rational mind step in and regulate them? Show us these things so we can see that you truly have learned from the philosophers. But, as he recounts in his biography of Demosthenes, he was surprised at how quickly it all came to him.
Study, yes, but go live your life as well. All of that is philosophy. All of it is experience that brings meaning to the words. Which is easier right here and right now? The same goes for freedom. If you chafe and fight and struggle for more, you will never be free.
If you could find and focus on the pockets of freedom you already have? For in that is the key to everything. Whatever else remains, be it in the power of your choice or not, is but a corpse and smoke. Who watches the watchmen? In a way, this is what Marcus is asking himself—and what you might ask yourself throughout the day. What influences the ruling reason that guides your life? This means an exploration of subjects like evolutionary biology, psychology, neurology, and even the subconscious.
Because these deeper forces shape even the most disciplined, rational minds. You can be the most patient person in the world, but if science shows we make poor decisions on an empty stomach —what good is all that patience?
Understand not only your ruling reason—the watchmen—but whoever and whatever rules that too. Remember that next time you hear someone ramble on about how the market decides what things are worth. The market might be rational. Diogenes, who founded the Cynic school, emphasized the true worth axia of things, a theme that persisted in Stoicism and was strongly reflected in both Epictetus and Marcus.
The good things in life cost what they cost. The unnecessary things are not worth it at any price. The key is being aware of the difference. As soon as one is in place, principles become necessary. This will happen in all our affairs unless we remove the faults that seize and detain our spirits, preventing them from pushing forward and making an all-out effort.
You walk into a business meeting, are caught off guard, and the whole thing goes poorly. A delicate conversation escalates into a shouting match. You switched majors halfway through college and had to start your coursework over and graduate late. Sound familiar? Not because plans are perfect, but because people without plans—like a line of infantrymen without a strong leader—are much more likely to get overwhelmed and fall apart. The Super Bowl—winning coach Bill Walsh used to avoid this risk by scripting the beginning of his games.
You can walk into the stadium and you can start the game without that stress factor. Have a plan. Be content, then, to be a philosopher in all that you do, and if you wish also to be seen as one, show yourself first that you are and you will succeed.
If we did these things because we liked it, that would be one thing. The irony, as Marcus Aurelius points out repeatedly, is that the people whose opinion we covet are not all that great. Unthinking habit? But the base person is unable to do anything else. A child who is never given any boundaries will become spoiled. So you must be aware of that. You must put in place training and habits now to replace ignorance and ill discipline. Only then will you begin to behave and act differently.
Only then will you stop seeking the impossible, the shortsighted, and the unnecessary. A doctor can tell from a radiograph or an autopsy whether someone sat at a desk for a living.
If you shove your feet into tiny, narrow dress shoes each day, your feet begin to take on that form as well. The same is true for our mind. If you hold a perpetually negative outlook, soon enough everything you encounter will seem negative. Color it with the wrong thoughts and your life will be dyed the same. How much harder is it to be positive and empathetic inside the negativity bubble of television chatter?
But when we are, there is nothing that says we have to allow those influences to penetrate our minds. We have the ability to put our guard up and decide what we actually allow in. We embrace evil before good. We desire the opposite of what we once desired. Our prayers are at war with our prayers, our plans with our plans. All of these people, just as is often true for us too, are deceived and divided. One hand is working against the other. As Martin Luther King Jr.
The Stoics say that that war is usually a result of our conflicting desires, our screwed-up judgments or biased thoughts. What am I actually after here? It can happen to you, so keep yourself simple, good, pure, saintly, plain, a friend of justice, god-fearing, gracious, affectionate, and strong for your proper work.
Fight to remain the person that philosophy wished to make you. Revere the gods, and look after each other. Life is short—the fruit of this life is a good character and acts for the common good. It was simply thrust upon him. Nevertheless, he was suddenly the richest man in the world, head of the most powerful army on earth, ruling over the largest empire in history, considered a god among men. Without them, he might have lost his sense of what was important—falling prey to the lies from all the people who needed things from him.
And here we are, whatever we happen to be doing, at risk of spinning off ourselves. Reason must lead the way no matter what good fortune comes along. As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in Blink, we are constantly making split-second decisions based on years of experience and knowledge as well as using the same skill to confirm prejudices, stereotypes, and assumptions.
Clearly, the former thinking is a source of strength, whereas the latter is a great weakness. We lose very little by taking a beat to consider our own thoughts. Is this really so bad? What do I really know about this person? Why do I have such strong feelings here? Is anxiety really adding much to the situation? Because I have understood the beauty of good and the ugliness of evil, I know that these wrong-doers are still akin to me.
For we are made for cooperation. The question is: Are you going to be ready for it? Might it not be better to understand up front—right when you wake up—that other people often behave in selfish or ignorant ways the toad than it is to nibble it throughout the day? Arrogant opinion expects that there is nothing further needed, and mistrust assumes that under the torrent of circumstance there can be no happiness.
How often do we meet people and think we know exactly who and what they are? And how often are these assumptions proved to be completely and utterly wrong? This is why we must fight our biases and preconceptions: because they are a liability. Why is this thing the way it is? Am I part of the problem here or the solution? Could I be wrong here? Be doubly careful to honor what you do not know, and then set that against the knowledge you actually have.
If we ever do want to become wise, it comes from the questioning and from humility—not, as many would like to think, from certainty, mistrust, and arrogance. But when it comes to our own ruling principle, we yawn and doze off, accepting any appearance that flashes by without counting the cost.
Merchants were often skilled enough that they could test coinage by throwing it against a hard surface and listen to the note it rang. All this for an imaginary currency, an invention of society. The point of this metaphor is to highlight how much effort we put into making sure money is real, whereas we accept potentially life-changing thoughts or assumptions without so much as a question. One ironic assumption along these lines: that having a lot of money makes you wealthy.
Or that because a lot of people believe something, it must be true. Really, we should be testing these notions as vigilantly as a money changer. Our senses are wrong all the time! Part of Stoicism is cultivating the awareness that allows you to step back and analyze your own senses, question their accuracy, and proceed only with the positive and constructive ones.
Hold your senses suspect. Again, trust, but always verify. The perceiving eye sees what things supposedly mean. Which one do you think causes us the most anguish?
An event is inanimate. It simply is what it is. This will ruin me. How could this have happened? Bringing disturbance with it and then blaming it on the event. He had a school. He hosted classes. In fact, his wisdom is passed down to us through a student who took really good lecture notes.
One of the things that frustrated Epictetus about philosophy students—and has frustrated all college professors since time began—is how students claim to want to be taught but really secretly believe they already know everything. As smart or successful as we may be, there is always someone who is smarter, more successful, and wiser than us.
Thyestes: Anyone who has experienced how easily they flow back. Even two thousand years later it remains a classic of the revenge genre.
Without spoiling it, the quote above comes from the scene in which Atreus is attempting to lure his hated brother Thyestes into a cruel trap by offering him tempting and generous gifts. At first, Thyestes declines, to the complete bafflement of his enemy. We are typically surprised when someone turns down an expensive gift or a position of honor or success. General William T. Not every opportunity is fraught with danger, but the play was intended to remind us that our attraction toward what is new and shiny can lead us into serious trouble.
Be cheerful, not wanting outside help or the relief others might bring. A person needs to stand on their own, not be propped up. For instance, the writers we admire tend to be masters of economy and brevity.
What they leave out is just as important—sometimes more important—than what they leave in. Get to the point! Yet our own lives, habits, and tendencies might be a mystery to us. But then his position was revoked for political purposes. Who really cares, Seneca was saying, now you can focus that energy on your inner life. Which will help your children more—your insight into happiness and meaning, or that you followed breaking political news every day for thirty years?
I will pay my taxes gladly. Now, all the things which cause complaint or dread are like the taxes of life— things from which, my dear Lucilius, you should never hope for exemption or seek escape. Forty percent of everything I make goes to these people? And for what?! First off, taxes go to a lot of programs and services you almost certainly take for granted.
Get over it. Third, this is a good problem to have. Far better than, say, making so little there is nothing left to pay the government or living in an anarchy and having to pay for every basic service in a struggle against nature.
But more important, income taxes are not the only taxes you pay in life. They are just the financial form. Everything we do has a toll attached to it.
Waiting around is a tax on traveling. Rumors and gossip are the taxes that come from acquiring a public persona. Disagreements and occasional frustration are taxes placed on even the happiest of relationships. Theft is a tax on abundance and having things that other people want.
Stress and problems are tariffs that come attached to success. And on and on and on. There are many forms of taxes in life. Determined to marry Juliet, Romeo hurries to Friar Lawrence. The Friar agrees to marry them, expressing the hope that the…. Mercutio and Benvolio meet the newly enthusiastic Romeo in the street. Romeo defeats Mercutio in a battle of wits. Juliet waits impatiently for the Nurse to return.
Her impatience grows when the Nurse, having returned, is slow to deliver…. After expressing their mutual love, they exit with the Friar to be married. Mercutio and Benvolio encounter Tybalt on the street. As soon as Romeo arrives, Tybalt tries to provoke him to fight….
Juliet longs for Romeo to come to her. The Nurse arrives with the news that Romeo has killed Tybalt and…. Friar Lawrence tells Romeo that his punishment for killing Tybalt is banishment, not death. Romeo responds that death is preferable…. Paris again approaches Capulet about marrying Juliet. Capulet, saying that Juliet will do as she is told, promises Paris that….
Romeo and Juliet separate at the first light of day. Almost immediately her mother comes to announce that Juliet must….
Paris is talking with Friar Lawrence about the coming wedding when Juliet arrives. It Takes Love to Make Love. I Can't Get Close Enough.
It's You Again. My Heart's in Good Hands. Since You Came In. Did You See That Girl. I Can't Love You Anymore. Still so in Love with You. We Can Save Our Love. Do It All Over Again. Till the Very End. The Closer You Get. Take Me Down. Give Me One More chance. Keep it in the Middle of the Road. Sixteen Tons. See More. Revolver The Beatles. Ballads John Coltrane. A Love Supreme John Coltrane.
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