Sextus Philosophicus

Real stoic philosopher

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

Epistula II

Dear Lucas,

I read your letter and your concerns about your feelings, let me start with: don’t do it yet.

As long as she is in a relationship, keep at a distance and wait, no matter how heavy it is on your heart. When a woman is in a relationship she doesn’t think romantically about other men.

My advice is so: Seducing a woman in a relationship is like a pirate ambushing trading vessels, If it’s too early, the coast guard will stop the ambush, too late and the ship will have escaped.

Make sure you are exactly at the right time, just before or just after she leaves her lover.

But Lucas, I need to heed you for these extreme emotions like love. One should keep them to a minimum because, although it feels good, the feelings are so extreme that when they disappears, it feels as if you feel bad even though you still feel better then neutral*.

‘If a Berber would move to northern Italy, he would feel as if it is cold, even though it is warm.’ The best for long time happiness and ataraxia is not to live in extremes, but to keep moderate.

Do not seek her out, do not fill walls with her name, do not collect her hairs. If you do that, she will fill your mind up, but if she marries suddenly any thought about her will be negative, then your mind will be filled with sadness.

Best is to enjoy small pleasures that can’t turn sour, instead of extreme pleasures that can turn into extreme sorrow.

Instead, you should strive for friendships, they are less extreme forms of love.

A friend can give you support that you can’t get from a loved one and friendship doesn’t make you make dumb choices.

Epicurus’ idea of a commune, as you might know, is all about distancing yourself from those who want to make you feel bad, use or destroy you and instead surround yourself with those who want you to feel good, help and grow.

Before I leave, I’ll give you a small piece of my wisdom: ‘It’s easy to fall in love and easy to fall out, and that fall is hard, it’s hard to fall in friendship and hard to fall out, but that fall is softer’

Go well

*the author believed that there was an emotional state, neither sad nor happy, called neutral.

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

Dear Lucas,

I’m sorry for the late response to your letter, I’ve been ill for the last four days, it was painful but certainly good for me. You might ask: “Good? Being ill?” To that I say: Yes, but not good for my body, but for my mind. You see, like the skin of a boxer getting less sensitive to the strikes of his opponent, the mind too can get less sensitive to pain. I feel less pain then when I got it when I was small, I’m able to walk around and eat, where a few years ago I could barely roll out of bed. Diogenes too, as you know how much I admire him, acted to this: he would walk around in the snow barefooted so that he wouldn’t feel the pain of the cold anymore and in that way make an icy winter night as pleasant as a spring morning. I am not so far to say that for me the pain doesn’t matter, but I’m sure it will return and I’ll defeat it again and again until I’m strong enough to not be bothered by it anymore.

And Lucas, you need to promise me something, the next time you poop, thank your body for letting it happen. I did so after three days of constipation. So I want to give you some words of wisdom before I end this letter: ‘What has not been lost can not be loved.’ This works with everything, I had lost the ability to poop and thus when I regained it, I loved it. You have never lost your ability to poop so you probably only think of it as a bother. One might bring in: “But a mother can love her son without losing him.” Well, a mother has lost her son many times before really losing him. My mother would say to me: “Stay safe” Every time I left my home because I was already run over, killed or worse in her mind. So be thankful for pooping today and sneezing tomorrow, for we all need to be more thankful for things that we have not lost. And a thankful mind is one that is more at ease.

Go well

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

You: Oneliner

Me, an intellectual: Sententia

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

Cicero: "what is better than free time spend on litrature"

-Tusculae Disputationes V 104-105

Me: "someone ain't getting laid I see."

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

When I die, I want my friends to eat my body, so that I can give pleasure to my friends after death.

[oldgermanicsuggestions]

Most relatable hashtag ever @norsesuggestions

[romansuggestions]

They oppress us in the first place!

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

They opress my genitals.

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

I really want to follow the stoic philosophy but I've got anxiety and I cry a lot. what to do

Anxiety, like all other states of the mind are simply our reaction to a world we can't control. Saying you can't practice stoic philosophy because you have anxiety is like saying you can't walk because you crawl. And we all know it's hard, but only true happiness can be attained from *you* choosing how to react on the actions of the di immortalis.

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

Hello thinkers of the past. I am the modern day thinker Michele Foucault. I have a brilliant idea. i will create a theoritical framework to understand the entire human. among my building blocks are greeks philosopers discussions about the importance of top and bottoms and the importance of teaching knowledge per anal sex so to say. I got this idea while having lit bdsm sex with a fellow radical man. thoughts?/norsesuggestions for ones as herself a grad school gender studies student

The most important thing to keep in mind with student-teacher relationships is that you create a good bond while makimg sure that he doesn’t get cocky, so you as a teacher need to top your student, but top him not like you would a slave, but more like your wife, only with more love.

[norsesuggestions]

Michele Foucault voice:

But WHAT IF

I want my student to top me?

also. wife. what wife?

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

You should teach your student that he must accept what the world gives him! Like the way of the stoa says: you can't change the world, only how you react to it!

And if you let your student top, imagine what would happen if all students, all servants and wives would top. That would bring an end to all beauty and honour in the world.

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

How do you feel about living on the street in a giant urn and killing chickens?

Living the philosophy of cynicism is great for those minds who can control their every function of the mind, one must wonder though if thinking about and living a virtuous way of life is better then thinking about a virtuous way of life and then spreading it to as many men as possible instead of only those in his close vicinity.

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

Hello thinkers of the past. I am the modern day thinker Michele Foucault. I have a brilliant idea. i will create a theoritical framework to understand the entire human. among my building blocks are greeks philosopers discussions about the importance of top and bottoms and the importance of teaching knowledge per anal sex so to say. I got this idea while having lit bdsm sex with a fellow radical man. thoughts?/norsesuggestions for ones as herself a grad school gender studies student

The most important thing to keep in mind with student-teacher relationships is that you create a good bond while makimg sure that he doesn't get cocky, so you as a teacher need to top your student, but top him not like you would a slave, but more like your wife, only with more love.

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

Asks!

I believe I can now be asked to enlighten the folks. Maybe if your questions are important enough *cough* probably not you're all uneducated wingless chickens *cough* i can write a book about it.

I heard Alexandria is a great place to store your writings, nothing will happen to that library. Right?

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

Beards

Don't let anyone believe that they are a philosopher if they have no beards. It's like a priest without his head covered or a barbarian without pants

[romansuggestions]

me: *sees a beautiful youth in the forum*

me: no, I have a beautiful wife whom I adore.

merchant: this greek slave is not circumcised and he is very obedient!

me: *shoves my bag of denarii into the merchants mouth*

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

One could simply bind a young pupil with the promise of knowledge of themselves and the world. *murmers* Those slaves make it a bit harder...

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

I suggest every classical art paper starts with:

On a phallic note...

[romansuggestions]

stop yourself from having unpleasant thoughts by moistening a finger with saliva and rubbing it across the skin behind the ear.

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

Is the unpleasant thought unpleasant in nature or because we denounce it as unpleasant. If the latter is true, can we stop having any thoughts by denouncing all thought as bad and then rubbing saliva behind our ears?

[romansuggestions]

if your dick comes near my sons, I’ll make you eat it. word of roman.

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

But it's such a rich and old tradition.

[romansuggestions]

stop yourself from having unpleasant thoughts by moistening a finger with saliva and rubbing it across the skin behind the ear.

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

Is the unpleasant thought unpleasant in nature or because we denounce it as unpleasant. If the latter is true, can we stop having any thoughts by denouncing all thought as bad and then rubbing saliva behind our ears?

[realphilosopherswearbeards]

Me explaining a 2770 AUC person the Tusculanae Disputationes

Cicero was going though what you call... an emo-phase.