Snow and more snow - plus cold!

 "When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shrink from being seen to do it, even though the world should misunderstand it; for if you are not acting rightly, shun the action itself; if you are, why fear those who wrongly censure you?" - Epictetus

Behold Germany!

 "Swiftly the remembrance of all things is buried in the gulf of eternity." - Marcus Aurelius

No User-Serviceable Parts Inside!

 "The things you think about determine the quality of your mind." - Marcus Aurelius

The James Webb Space Telescope Launch

"For if we had any sense, what else should we do, both in public and in private, than sing hymns and praise the deity, and recount all the favors that he has conferred!" - Epictetus

Career Autobiography part 9 - The ACE Project - Argus Cogeneration Expansion

 "The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have." - Epictetus

Radioactive Necklace!

 "If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever remember that he is thy brother." - Epictetus

Repairs, repairs - Microwave keypad and dash rocker switch

 "They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Merry Christmas, from me and the Vince Gauraldi Trio

 "We should infer in the case of a beautiful dwelling place that it was built for its owners, and not for mice.  We ought, therefore, in the same way to regard the universe as the dwelling place of the gods." - Chrysippus

Abused Husky Pro Air Compressor Model VH631400AJ

 "Whatever can happen at any time can also happen today." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

The best gift I've gotten in quite a while

 ... too bad I had to buy it for myself :)  R.L. Burnside, self-taught Mississippi Blues guitarist. 

Check him out below:

So many projects, so little time

 "The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

The Dark time of year

 "Control thy passions lest they take vengeance on thee." - Epictetus

Perhaps we are all unvaxxed now

 "'It is my bad luck that this has happened to me.'  No, you should rather say: 'It is my good luck that, although this has happened to me, I can bear it without pain, neither crushed by the present, nor fearful of the future.'  Because such a thing could have happened to any man, but not every man could have borne it." - Marcus Aurelius

TerraPower's Natrium Reactor

"You have power over your mind - not outside events.  Realize this, and you will find strength." - Marcus Aurelius

First snow this season

 "When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans." - Marcus Aurelius

Farewell, little dog

 "Remind thyself that he whom thou lovest is mortal that what thou lovest is not thine own; it is given the for the present, not irrevocably nor forever, but even as a fig or a bunch of grapes at the appointed season of the year." - Epictetus

This isn't working.

 "That which exercises reason is more excellent than that which does not exercise reason; there is nothing more excellent than the universe, therefore the universe exercises reason." - Zeno of Citium

Zero for Ten

 "If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." - Marcus Aurelius

Replacing 1999 Subaru rear wheel bearings...

 ... and getting my ass handed to me.  But first, a quote from a noted stoic!

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself among the ranks of the insane." - Marcus Aurelius

A most appropriate quote for these trying times!  The easily-influenced are certainly in the majority.  It's best to try to be a detached observer of the insanity.  Be a problem-solver instead of a problem - it isn't that difficult.

Digital Media Storage

 "Whenever you want to cheer yourself up, consider the good qualities of your companions.  For example: The energy of one, the modesty of another, the generosity of yet another, and some other quality of another.  For nothing cheers the heart as much as the images of excellence reflected in the character of our companions, all brought before us as fully as possible.  Therefore, keep these images ready at hand." - Marcus Aurelius

Watch this and learn...

 This guy is from Great Britain, but what he says applies to everyone in the world.  Pay attention!

Ha!  I see they've added a "Covid misinformation" note at the bottom of the video.  Where exactly is the "misinformation" in this video?  All I hear is logic and questions.  I wish they would be willing to share what part is considered incorrect, but I'm not sure they can manage that.

At least he knows how Galileo felt when the authorities of the time confronted him.  I suspect that History will not be kind to these authoritarian people either.

Vintage Electronics Repair

 "Life is like a play: It's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Wheel Speed Sensor

 "A poor girl wants to marry, and a rich girl wants to flirt."

"A rich man goes to college, and a poor man goes to work."

- Charlie Daniels (Long-Haired Country Boy)

Plague Doctor

 

Submarine Collisions - Things go bump - USS Connecticut

 "In an expression of true gratitude, sadness is conspicuous only by its absence." - Marcus Aurelius

(I've Got) The Yanmar Blues

 "If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means.  And when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated." - Epictetus

GSU construction and protection

 "He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at." - Epictetus

Roadster in Space

 "That which exercises reason is more excellent than that which does not exercise reason; there is nothing more excellent than the universe, therefore the universe exercises reason." - Zeno of Citium

Help Wanted

 "We are at the mercy of whoever wields authority over the things we either desire or detest.  If you would be free, then do not wish to have or avoid things that other people control, because then you must serve as their slave." - Epictetus

Rock Concert!

 "We ought to do good to others simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season, without thinking of the grapes it has borne." - Marcus Aurelius

Molten Salt Reactors

 "It is more civilized to make fun of life than to bewail it." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

N.S. Savannah

 "Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back." - Marcus Aurelius

Enrichment, burnable poison, and self-poisoning

 "Difficulty shows what men are.  Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man.  Why?  So that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat." - Epictetus

Jefferson Mystery Clocks

 Be not disgusted, nor discouraged, if thou dost not succeed in doing everything according to right principles; but when thou hast failed, return back again, and be content if the greater part of what thou doest is consistent with man's nature, and love this to which thou returnest." - Marcus Aurelius

Shop Bathroom Water Heater

 "Confine yourself to the present" - Marcus Aurelius

Determining the charge of an electron

 "Take the shortest route, the one that nature planned - to speak and act in the healthiest way.  Do that, and be free of pain and stress, free of all calculation and pretension." - Marcus Aurelius

Mid-August

 "Freedom is the only worthy goal in life.  It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control" - Epictetus

Fossil, Nuclear and Green

 "He who intends to introduce a new law, should do it with a rope about his neck, in order that he might be immediately strangled, unless he could change the ancient constitution of the polity, to the very great advantage of his community." - Hierocles

Fire in the hole!

 I've had a lot of bosses who could stand to follow today's stoic quote.  Those bosses are a large part of the reason that I am interested in stoic philosophy.

"What you shun enduring yourself, attempt not to impose on others.  You shun slavery - beware enslaving others.  If you can endure to do that, one would think that you had been once upon a time a slave yourself.  For vice has nothing in common with virtue, nor freedom with slavery." - Epictetus (born a slave, disabled, and later banished from Rome along with all philosophers by emperor Domitian)

Tough brake

 "The first step:  Don't be anxious.  Nature controls all.  And before long, you'll be no one, nowhere - like Hadrian, like Augustus."

"The second step:  Concentrate on what you have to do.  Fix your eyes on it.  Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being; remind yourself what nature demands of people."

"Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it."

"But with kindness.  With humility.  Without hypocrisy." - Marcus Aurelius

In memoriam - Sparkles

 "Live out your life in truth and justice, tolerant of those who are neither true nor just" - Marcus  Aurelius

So much for June!

 "It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amidst abundance." - Epictetus

Awesome YouTuber

 Enjoy!

 

Lotsa walkin'

 "A man's worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions." - Marcus Aurelius

The grass is too long

 "No more roundabout discussions of what makes a good man.  Be one." - Marcus Aurelius

Intermittent posting for a while

 "Ambition means tying your well-being to what others say or do.  Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you.  Sanity mans tying it to your own actions." - Marcus Aurelius

Rough wood, smooth wood

 "Do every act of life as if it were your last." - Marcus Aurelius

Early Instrumental Rock Music

 "Take the shortest route, the one that nature planned - to speak and act in the healthiest way.  Do that, and be free of pain and stress, free of all calculation and pretense." - Marcus Aurelius

Live Concerts

 "Do not get too attached to life, for it is like a sailor's leave on the shore, and at any time the captain may sound the horn, calling you back to eternal darkness." - Epictetus

Sir, I need to see your license

"No person is free who is not master of himself." - Epictetus

The future you were promised is currently unavailable. Please try again later.

 "Don't let your imagination be crushed by life as a whole.  Don't try to picture everything bad that could possibly happen.  Stick with the situation at hand, and ask, "Why is this so unbearable?  Why can't I endure it?  You'll be embarrassed to answer.  Then remind yourself that the past and future have no power over you.  Only the present - and even that can be minimized." - Marcus Aurelius

Shoes - regurgitated

"Everything that happens is either endurable or it is not.  If it is endurable, stop complaining.  If it's unendurable then stop complaining.  Your destruction will mean its end as well." - Marcus Aurelius

Society is doomed

 "No man is crushed by misfortune unless he has first been deceived by prosperity." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Criminality and Informed Consent

 "As the sun does not wait for prayers and incantations to be induced to rise, but immediately shines and is saluted by all, so do you also not wait for clappings of hands and shouts of praise to be induced to do good, but be a doer of good voluntarily and you will be beloved as much as the sun." - Epictetus

Covid - Media still ignoring the lab leak hypothesis

"Since every man dies, it is better to die with distinction than to live long." - Gaius Musonius Rufus

Pondering Price vs. Value

 "Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them." - Marcus Aurelius

I'm losing page views!

 Every once in a while, I track page views and search terms to see what people are looking for, and which posts people find interesting.  For the past six months, views have hovered around 60 per day.  

Recently page views have dropped off, very unnaturally.  Below is a trend of page views going back 10 years.  You can see where things went south suddenly last week.

Dang.  There goes my ad revenue!  Oh wait... I don't get any ad revenue.  I just do this for fun.

New shoes!

"The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come.  When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin.  When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come.  Thus his person is not endangered and his States and all their clans are preserved" - Confucius

Curio idea: CP-1

 "Do not try to seem wise to others.  If you want to live a wise life, live it on your own terms and in your own eyes." - Epictetus

So much for those days off...

"Perfection of character: To live your last day, every day, without frenzy, without sloth, without pretense." - Marcus Aurelius

Another good day for music!

 "A man's greatness lies not in wealth and station, as the vulgar believe.  Nor does it lie in his intellectual capacity, which is often associated with the worst moral character - the most abject servility to those in high places and arrogance to the poor and lowly.  But a man's true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life, founded upon a just estimate of himself and everything else.  On frequent self-examination, and a steady obedience to the rule which he knows to be right - without troubling himself, as the emperor says he should not, about what others may say , or whether they do or don't do that which he thinks and says and does." - Marcus Aurelius

A great article about inflation

 

 This is the kind of news article that you rarely find in a major US newspaper.  This is a hard-hitting and accurate article about price inflation and the Federal Reserve.  The US sees all problems as things that can be fixed with better PR.  Some things, like inflation, cannot be fixed with PR.

Article is here.

Also, I highly recommend reading the Asia Times routinely.  It gives a different perspective, and provides an alternative to the nearly identical articles put out by US based news.   

"To vax, or not to vax, that is the question:"

 "The essence of philosophy (of stoicism) is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things." - Epictetus

Three Strikes

 "Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Firing up the limbs

 "A city is not adorned by external things, but by the virtue of those who dwell in it." - Epictetus

Submarine KRI Nanggala-402 - updated

 No stoic quote for this post.  

Just a quick note here:  The above Indonesian submarine appears to have sunk, taking 53 souls with her to the bottom. Fifty three more men on eternal patrol :(

The news report says that the ship went down in 600-700 meter deep water, which would be right at the crush depth of a very robust military submarine.  Test depth is believed to be just 250 meters for this ship, and so it's unlikely that there are survivors.  An oil slick has developed, which is likely propulsion lubricants or diesel fuel from ruptured tanks, indicating that the hull was likely breached.

 Sad business, and a terrible way to exit this sorry world.  Rest in peace, brothers.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-22/australia-defence-help-rescue-mission-indonesian-submarine-crew/100087082

UPDATE 4-22-21

The approximate location of the missing submarine has been released.  Maps are provided below.

Below:  The red pin is Bali, Indonesia.  The large island on the right is New Guinea, and the continent at the bottom is the Northern part of Australia.  The string of islands going left to right and the large one up top belong to Indonesia

Below: The sub is believed to lie a short distance North of the island of Bali.

The news articles state that search teams have found a magnetic signature - possibly the submarine - in 100-150 meters of water, and also mention that air for the crew will run out in approximately 24 hours.  This clashes with other reports that the sub went down in 600-700 meter deep water.  There is nothing wrong with haste in attempting to locate and rescue any possible survivors, but I'm not optimistic about that at all.  A realistic assessment would probably conclude that the entire crew passed.  Sad tidings.

Update 7 May 2021

The wreckage of Nanggala-402 has been located, at the coordinates 7°48′56″S 114°51′20″E.  You can find images of the wreckage elsewhere on the internet, but not on my blog.  Out of respect for the crew and their families, I will not post those.

She was lost during a live-fire military practice exercise, similar to what the Russian submarine Kursk was doing when it was lost.  Kursk was lost when a warhead is believed to have exploded in the torpedo room - but it is still unclear what caused Nanggala to be lost.

One current theory is that the submarine lost all electrical power.  My problem with this theory is that even if a submarine loses electrical power, the crew can still blow the ballast tanks to gain buoyancy and emergency surface.  Whatever the event was, it probably happened very quickly, or the crew would have been able to save the ship.

China has offered assistance to Indonesia, and perhaps even raise the wreckage.  The ship has broken into three sections, and it is a small ship to begin with, so the process should not be too difficult.  I will do further updates as more information is available.

Just a song

 "We are mad, not only individually but nationally.  We punish manslaughter and isolated murders, but what of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?" - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Trees!

 "Men do not care how nobly they live, but only for how long.  Although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's power to live long." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Time for a post!

 Hippocrates cured many illnesses - and then fell ill himself and died. 

The Chaldeans predicted the deaths of many others - in due course their own hour arrived.

Alexander the great, Pompeii, Ceasar - who utterly destroyed so many cities, cut down so many thousand men and horse in battle - they too departed this life.

Heraclitus often told us the world would end in fire, but it was moisture that carried him off; he died smeared with cow shit.

Democritus was killed by ordinary vermin, while Socrates was killed by the human kind.

And you?  You boarded, set sail, you've made your passage.  Time to disembark.

If it's for another life, well, there's nowhere without gods on that side either.

If to nothingness, then you no longer have to put up with pain and pleasure, or go on dancing attendance on this battered crate, your body - so inferior to that which serves it.

One is mind and spirit, the other earth and garbage. - Marcus Aurelius.

A bit of music - and inermittent posting

 "Thus it appears that exile helps, rather than hinders body and spirit, by treating them better than they treat themselves." - Gaius Musonius Rufus

Tombay!!!

 "There is no man so blessed that some who stand by his death bed won't hail the occasion with delight." - Marcus Aurelius

Removing the snow plow

 "Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope." - Epictetus

Boring first video

 "If you can cut yourself - your mind - free of what other people do and say, of what you've said or done, of the things that you're afraid will happen, the impositions of the body that contains you and the breath within, and what the whirling chaos sweeps in from outside, so that the mind is freed from fate, brought to clarity, and lives life on its own recognizance - doing what's right, accepting what happens, and speaking the truth - If you can cut free of impressions that cling to the mind, free of the future and the past - can make yourself 'a sphere rejoicing in its perfect stillness', and concentrate on living what can be lived (meaning the present)... then you can spend the time you have left in tranquility.  And in kindness,.  And at peace with the spirit within you." - Marcus Aurelius

Spring chores

 "Anger and the sorrow that it produces are far more harmful than the things which make us angry" - Marcus Aurelius

Another Cover Song - Ring of Fire

 This song played on the way in to work today, and it reminded me of an earlier post where I discussed cover tunes.

 I've always loved "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash.  The intro with the Mexican trumpets is absolutely brilliant, and the rest of the song is really pleasing in all respects to the ear.

There is a cover of this song that I also like very much.  It's mainly great because the original song is so awesome, but I also like punk music a lot.  I'm pretty fond of the pick drags right before each verse.  This was the version that came up on the way to work.  My ears are still ringing from the volume being turned way way up, hahaha.

If I had to choose one over the other version, it would be difficult. 

Mountain Bike Computer

 "Circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations.  Events happen as they do.  People behave as they are.  Embrace what you actually get." - Epictetus.

First road bike ride in a long time

"Wealth consists not of having great possessions, but in having few wants." - Epictetus

Darwin Award nomination for 2021

 But first a quote from a noted Stoic!

It is unrealistic to expect people to see you as you see yourself." - Epictetus

Balance, Skill, and Cojones

 "He who is brave is free." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Another interesting point about the Texas freeze

 Presented without comment.

The Novara is now ready

 "When another blames you or hates you, or people voice criticism, go to their souls - penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are.  You will realize that there is no need to be concerned of any opinion they hold about you." - Marcus Aurelius

 After completing the restoration of the Novara, it still needed a little bit of technological improvement.

Surgery

 "Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes.  Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavors.  Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal.  The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths.  Remain steadfast and one day you will build something that endures: Something worthy of your potential." - Epictetus

Biking Accessories

 

 "The best revenge is not to do as they do." - Marcus Aurelius

 Below: Self-deception.

Behold Texas

We need Stoics, now more than ever.  People have gone insane.

"If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed.  It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed." - Marcus Aurelius

 

New CD - Smooth Jazz Guitar

  "If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, 'I awake to do the work of a man'." - Marcus Aurelius

Zwift

 "The difficulty comes from our lack of confidence." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Keto Flu

 "It's not that we have little time, but more that we waste a good deal of it." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

There is another (non-stoic) quote along similar lines:

"Youth is wasted on the young" - George Bernard Shaw, American Playwright

In other words, youth have no frame of reference other than being young, and when you are young, you have a lot of unencumbered free time.  Therefore young people don't appreciate their health, stamina, freedom from demands, and lack of pain.  They have not yet experienced the loss of abilities, overwhelming obligations, and the fragility that come with age.  They (we!!!) don't appreciate the perks of being young.

Sigh... another new phone

 "If we were to measure what is good by how much pleasure it brings, nothing would be better than self-control.  If we were to measure what is to be avoided by its pain, nothing would be more painful than lack of self-control." - Gaius Musonius Rufus

Starlink in action!

 "Do not be ashamed of help." - Marcus Aurelius

A mountain bike, too

"Everything is banal in experience, fleeting in duration, sordid in content; in all respects the same today as generations now dead and buried have found it to be." - Marcus Aurelius

 

Beater road bike - Novara Trionfo

 "You will never have to experience defeat if you avoid contests whose outcome is outside your control." - Epictetus

As I write this, the weather is brutally cold and dry.  This morning is was 5 degrees F (-15 degrees C), with a wind chill down at -15F (-26 degrees C).  Hopefully this cold snap is decimating the ticks that harm the wildlife, hornet eggs, and the bark beetles that keep killing red fir trees.

It's not exactly bike riding weather, but I've been on a semi-autistic obsession with getting back into riding again.

Some cool African music

 "Frighened of change?  But what can exist without it?  What is closer to nature's heart?  Can you take a hot bath and leave the firewood as it was?  Eat food without transforming it?  Can an vital process take place without something being changed? 

"Can't you see?  It's just the same with you - and just as vital to nature." - Marcus Aurelius

That's All Folks!

This guy gets it.

Follow the link.

Starlink

 "It is always our choice whether or not we wish to pay the price for life's rewards.  And often it is best for us not to pay the price, for the price might be our integrity." - Epictetus

Below is a pretty typical internet speed test result where I live.  I'm in a rural place that has no cable service and no fiber available.  The service is DSL, and the phone/internet company has shown no interest at all in improving the quality of their service.  I've called plenty of times.

Smelly no mo

 "Do not try to seem wise to others." - Epictetus

This post is a follow-up to the previous "Subaru Stinks" post.

The Subaru really STINKS!

"When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity, lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help.  Habitual recurrance to the harmony will increase your mastery of it." - Marcus Aurelius

Drones

 "Don't look down on death, but welcome it. It too is one of the things required by nature. Like youth and old age. Like growth and maturity. Like a new set of teeth, a beard, the first gray hair. Like sex and pregnancy and childbirth. Like all the other physical changes at each stage of life, our dissolution is no different. So this is how a thoughtful person should await death: not with indifference, not with impatience, not with disdain, but simply viewing it as one of the things that happen to us.

Now you anticipate the child's emergence from its mother's womb; that's how you should await the hour when your soul will emerge from its compartment. Or perhaps you need some tidy aphorism to tuck away in the back of your mind. Well, consider two things that should reconcile you to death: the nature of the things you'll leave behind you, and the kind of people you'll no longer be mixed up with.

There's no need to feel resentment toward them-in fact, you should look out for their well-being, and be gentle with them-but keep in mind that everything you believe is meaningless to those you leave behind. Because that's all that could restrain us (if anything could)-the only thing that could make us want to stay here: the chance to live with those who share our vision. But now? Look how tiring it is-this cacophony we live in. Enough to make you say to death, "Come quickly. Before I start to forget myself, like them." - Marcus Aurelius

Upcoming project

"Everyone prefers belief to the exercise of judgement." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A couple of Ridgid tools

 "The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.  The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are." - Marcus Aurelius

 

Masi Gran Corsa - out of cold storage

 "All cruelty springs from weakness." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I pulled the old bike down off the mezzanine recently, and ordered a bunch of parts (box, bottom right).  It sat there with flat tires and a thick layer of dust until I had a couple of days to get around to refurbishing it.

Yet another power outage...

 "There is a time and place for diversion and amusements, but you should never allow them to override your true purpose." - Epictetus

Below:  A Ponderosa pine tree fell across a street in Coeur d'Alene, ID as a result of the wind storm on January 13, 2021

The blend door problem

 "We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them." - Epictetus

Re-Cycling

"Don't just say you have read books.  Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person.  Books are the training weights of the mind.  They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents." - Epictetus

Cycling has been on my mind a lot recently.  I mostly blame the shipmate who sent that old photo, below:

Doesn't taste like chicken

 "Take full account of what excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not." - Marcus Aurelius

 

Road Music Again

 "No man is happy who does not think himself so." - Marcus Aurelius

Microwave Oven and Computer - Good as New

 "Whenever anyone criticizes or wrongs you, remember that they are only doing or saying what they think is true.  They cannot be guided by your views, only their own so if their views are wrong, they are the ones who suffer insofar as they are misguided." - Epictetus

 

This Year's Christmas

 "Fire tests gold.  Suffering tests men." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Happy New Year

 "Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look." - Marcus Aurelius