I'm not sure if many people would be interested in this, but I thought it might be a curious idea to start a topic about any proverbs, sayings, quotes, etc. you've come up with during the course of your life. These can be related to anything - philosophical, religious, technical, et al. Basically, any sayings you've created for whatever situation or purpose. You can even post excerpts from a journal or diary.

I'll start with some personal philosophy.

Am I sorrowed? Then I am a slave to sorrow. Am I angered? Then I am a slave to anger. If I am either, then my emotions are tethered to the things that elicit these feelings. Peace of mind results from separating the internal self from external occurrences and influences.

I am what I am by nature - nothing more, nothing less. Should I be wrong, then so should nature, itself, be wrong; so should all products of nature be wrong. How, then, can a person accuse another of wrong? He, too - a product of nature - suffers from some intrinsic imperfection.

Truth has no inherent value. To presuppose that a possibility or an outcome is veracious based only on merit of its desirability is to shield oneself from the nature of truth.

Every person is a standard of perfection.

Justice is a sin against the sinner. Agression cannot be surmounted with more agression. Agressive values enslave us, and - as we meditate on those values - drive us toward internal destruction. Reprisal in defense of immediate danger - independent of meditated agression - is the only justifiable use of violence.

To cast aspersions against others of responsibility, (fault) imperfection and wrong is to be a slave to jaundice - jealousy, bitterness, and adversarial values. By nature, no occurrence is any of these things. It is our own value-judgments that influence our observations of these occurrences, and cause us to feel emotional and psychological disturbances. When these value-judgments are abandoned, so then are internal disturbances.

Most of my views on these subjects are based in very apathic interpretations of Stoicism, and the premise that the universe is entirely deterministic. If we lack any agency of free-will and none of our choices are truly our own, then the outcome of our lives has already been determined by some antecedent that set everything into motion. If a person has knowledge that their actions are beyond their direct control, then for them to find this life disturbing, to experience guilt or responsibility for their own actions, or to engage in adversary, is entirely futile.

The logical consequence of awareness of predestination is removal from traditional interpretations of action and consequence. The traditional belief is that consequences are logical to personal choices made as a result of some agency of free-will. This places an unrealistic burden of responsibility upon every person subscribing to this belief. If, by nature, I am inclined to engage in some behavior that is socially unacceptable, then I will be made to suffer some internal conflict as a consequence of that behavior. This is senseless, because my nature cannot be altered.

Throughout my life, I have watched so many suffer internal conflicts over values they were indoctrinated with as children, and mutually exclusive qualities they possessed as a result of their very nature. Some people are able to modify these values in order to continue living their lives, simultaneously remaining true to their own nature; some people become so enslaved by these values that they attempt to modify their nature instead, and inexorably fail. These people are slaves to externals. If only they could realize their own nature, and be true only to themselves, they would find peace in this life. This is a piece of insight I wish I could give to every person.

Interesting, Zera... Now to spend some time writing up a page or so representing my philosophy

I've remembered a quote I created elsewhere, but I forget why
Anyway, here it is:

You are only limited by the knowledge of your limitations.

I'll let you decide what it means to you

regression is the second scariest thing i can think of(which is why i hate/loved flowers for algernon so much). the most terrifying is a situation like that of john forbes nash jr. where you suddenly discover, after years of being with someone, that that person is "not gone, not dead, but worse: had never existed"

as for the whole conforming to society thing there are definitely a number of things about which people stress unnecessarily, but that is no reason to pass off every deviation from the accepted norm as respectable in its own right. such deviations which cause suffering for other members of the society are not excusable and should still be dealt with somehow(preferably by moving the person to a society where such behaviour is not frowned upon or, failing that, basic manners (or in severe cases, incarceration).

one of my own personal comments on life: if the good times lasted they would become simply "the times"

edit: and thanks for starting this thread. it's nice to have somewhere to just talk about life every now and then