“Different is better than better.”
—Sally
“When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different.”
—James Clear
“Don’t seek to be the best. Seek to be the only.”
—Kevin Kelly
“They’re not the best at what they do—they’re the only ones that do what they do.”
—Bill Graham
I do not avoid movies that have ugliness or wickedness portrayed in them, I avoid movies that stir up my ugly and wicked passions. This distinction is essential. And it may be that a movie or novel that one person finds insightful and beautiful, another will have to avoid because some aspects of it stir up particular passions he or she may struggle with. Each person is different. I myself have found that I cannot at all listen to secular music without it causing terrible problems in my inner life, but I can watch a movie that some might consider inappropriate and it provide fodder for prayerful thought and contemplation for many days.Praying In The Rain,
More Thoughts on Movies, Holiness, and Brownies
Fr. Michael Gillis
“When you believe in the value you provide so much that you are doing people a disservice by not offering them your services, you’re on track to creating colossal value.”
—Benjamin P. Hardy
“You must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important—do what’s important first.”
—Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
“Welcome words of truth and to never reject criticism uncritically.”
—St. Mark the Ascetic
“Are you listening to what I’m saying, or are you just being offended?”
—Fr. Anthony Messeh
“Do not excuse yourself or refuse to be corrected by all; listen to every reproof with a serene countenance; think that God utters it.”
—St. John of the Cross
If it hurts to hear it, look for the truth in it.
—@naval
But if any one’s conscience attacks him, he himself is responsible for it, not my words.
Saint John Chrysostom, On the Vanity of Riches
HOMILY TWO
After Eutropios, having been found outside the church, was taken captive
If there are some men you hate and some you neither love nor hate, and others you love strongly and others again you love but moderately, recognize from this inequality that you are far from perfect love. For perfect love presupposes that you love all men equally.
—St. Maximus the Confessor
Far from feasting copiously, Epicurus was content with bread and water, which prevented him from starving and so abated any pain. He was not opposed to the occasional indulgence, at one point writing in correspondence, “Send me a little pot of cheese, that, when I like, I may fare sumptuously,” but once he’d sated his hunger, he thought no greater pleasure would come from actively seeking more elaborate dining.
Hedonism holds the secret to a happier life, but not for the reasons you think
Can you really think that the inner peace you are seeking depends on the locality you finally choose to live in? Surely, inner peace is acquired only by humbly living in accordance with the commandments: Learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls (Matt. 11.29).
Where you do it is beside the question….
Letters of Elder Macarius of Optina
And if you feel like you don’t do very much, and you feel like there’s no way God loves you. There are some people, they’re shocked, when I hear the struggles that they have in their life, the crosses that they bear, and I tell them, “If you only knew…” like they’re waiting for me to tell them that their problem is going to go away, and I tell them “No, your crown is going to be glorious in heaven.” And you say “I’m just a normal person, Abouna, I don’t do what all these other people do, I don’t do all these great things.” You’re comparing yourself to others.
