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Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday

Breaks no new ground but is still a worthwhile read. Useful review of Stoic and other philosophical principles that tend to fit into the "important but not urgent" category of life's responsibilities. In other words, since these principles are easy to forget--and likewise it's easy for us to fall out of the habit of practicing them--it never hurts to have a readable and anecdote-rich review to get you back into the practice.

A few quotes and thoughts worth copying down: 

Just think. Just be quiet and think. 
--Fred Rogers 

 What stands in your way is that you have too much willful will. 
--Awa Kenzo to Eugen Herrigel (from Zen In the Art of Archery) 

 "Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise." 
"It must be very well-disguised." 
--Winston Churchill talking with his wife Clementine, after being ignominiously voted out of office.

Try to look at this moment in the light of eternity. 
--Stephen Colbert's mother 

 Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. 
--Soren Kierkegaard 

Tomorrow, my friend, you will find an earthenware lamp; for a man can only lose what he has. 
--Epictetus after a thief stole his expensive iron lamp. 

 "When Diogenes saw a child drinking water from a well with his hands, he smashed his own cup, realizing that he had been carrying around an extraneous possession."

On John Boyd as a warrior-monk, living very modestly, not taking money, etc. 

The way is near, but men seek it afar. It is in easy things, but men seek for it in difficult things. 
--Mencius 

 To study philosophy is to learn how to die. 

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