Dysfunctional Consumer

　　I have become dysfunctional as a consumer. When I go to a mall, for example, I don’t buy things; instead, I look around me and am astonished by all the things for sale that I not only don’t need but can’t imagine myself wanting. My only entertainment at a mall is to watch the other mall-goers. Most of them, I suspect, come to the mall not because there is something specific that they need to buy. Rather, they come in the hope that doing so will trigger a desire for something that, before going to the mall, they didn’t want. It might be a desire for a cashmere sweater, a set of socket wrenches, or the latest cell phone. 　　Why go out of their way to trigger a desire? Because if they trigger one, they can enjoy the rush that comes when they extinguish that desire by buying its object. It is a rush, of course, that has as little to do with their long-term happiness as taking a hit of heroin has to do with the long-term happiness of a heroin addict.

He has not lived long

" So you must not think a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles: he has not lived long, just existed long."

You are dying prematurely

"How many have plundered your life when you were unaware of your losses; how much you have lost through groundless sorrow, foolish joy, greedy desire, the seductions of society; how little of your own was left: to you. You will realize that you are dying prematurely.' "

Nothing is worth doing pointlessly

Marcus Aurelius: “Nothing is worth doing pointlessly.”

Instead of knocking ourselves out trying to become popular

"Along these lines, Musonius observes, that the time and energy people expend on illicit love affairs far outweighs the time and energy it would take them, as practicing Stoics, to develop the self-control required to avoid such affairs. Musonius goes on to suggest that we would also be better off if, instead of working hard to become wealthy, we trained ourselves to be satisfied with what we have; if, instead of seeking fame, we overcame our craving for the admiration of others; if, instead of spending time scheming to harm someone we envy, we spent that time overcoming our feelings of envy; and if, instead of knocking ourselves out trying to become popular, we worked to maintain and improve our relationships with those we knew to be true friends."

“Let us go to Aricia then and dine.”

"When someone reported to Paconius that he was being tried in the Senate, Paconius was uninterested; he merely set off for his daily exercise and bath. When he was informed that he had been condemned, he asked whether it was to banishment or death. “To banishment,” came the reply. He then asked whether his property at Aricia had also been confiscated, and when he was told that it hadn’t, he replied, “Let us go to Aricia then and dine.”"

I shall despise riches

“I shall despise riches alike when I have them and when I have them not, being neither cast down if they shall lie elsewhere, nor puffed up if they shall glitter around me.”
~ Seneca

He who knows contentment

“He who knows contentment is rich.”
~ Lao Tzu

The truly rich man

“The man who adapts himself to his slender means and makes himself wealthy on a little sum, is the truly rich man.”
~ Seneca

Luxury uses her wit to promote vices

"Luxury, Seneca warns, uses her wit to promote vices: First she makes us want things that are inessential, then she makes us want things that are injurious. Before long, the mind becomes slave to the body’s whims and pleasures."

To desire so much when you can hold so little

"Is it not madness and the wildest lunacy to desire so much when you can hold so little?”
~ Seneca

Don’t act as if you are going to live ten thousand years

 “Don’t act as if you are going to live ten thousand years. Death always hangs over you. While you are alive and while it is still in your power, be good.”
~ Marcus Aurelius

Observe the world passing by

“This then remains — remember to retire into this little territory of the inner self—your own world (which is all there is)—and there be free, and, as a human being, observe the world passing by.”
~ Marcus Aurelius

Set of four virtues

"Marcus organized his practice into a set of four virtues which he never stopped practicing. Wisdom—learn what is good and bad, which involvements are beneficial and which are damaging, which concerns are ennobling and which are degrading. Justice—exercise honesty and fairness so that you can always respect yourself; do not be arrogant, thinking you are more than you are; but do not think less of yourself either, thinking you are worth nothing. Fortitude—develop the strength to withstand courageously “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” as Shakespeare later phrased it. And temperance—develop control of one’s passions, resist excesses, and learn to strike a balance in all of life."

Do you see me unhappy

“Do you see me unhappy because thus-and-so has happened to me? Not at all. Rather, I am happy despite its happening to me. Why? Because I continue on, free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future. For events such as this happen to every human being.”
~ Marcus Aurelius

Men seek all sorts of escape for themselves

 “Men seek all sorts of escape for themselves—houses in the country, by the seashores, in the mountains; and you too will probably want such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men.”
~ Marcus Aurelius

Another person will not do you harm unless you wish it

“Remember that what is insulting is not the person who abuses you or hits you, but the judgment about them that they are insulting. Another person will not do you harm unless you wish it; you will be harmed at just that time at which you take yourself to be harmed.”
~ Epictetus

What a crew they are

"Eating, sleeping, copulating, excreting, and the like; what a crew they are!”
~ Marcus Aurelius

To know how many are jealous of you

“To know how many are jealous of you, count your admirers.”
~ Seneca

What could possibly be worth sacrificing satisfaction in order to obtain?

"I would argue, though, that what is really foolish is to spend your life in a state of self-induced dissatisfaction when satisfaction lies within your grasp, if only you will change your mental outlook. To be able to be satisfied with little is not a failing, it is a blessing—if, at any rate, what you seek is satisfaction. And if you seek something other than satisfaction, I would inquire (with astonishment) into what it is that you find more desirable than satisfaction. What, I would ask, could possibly be worth sacrificing satisfaction in order to obtain?"