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This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs.
c. 150 AD · Stoicism
Date basis: author lifetime midpoint01 / Across the ages
02 / Follow a thought
03 / Featured voices
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04 / A few words, a whole world
Meaning: Distance may weaken a mild attachment while making an intense one feel stronger. The contrast between cooling and inflaming describes different possible responses to absence, rather than a dependable rule for measuring love or deciding how relationships should work.
Meaning: A person who is not present can become an easy target for blame because they cannot explain or challenge the account. Be cautious about judgements made without hearing them.
Meaning: People or matters that are absent for a long time may lose their place in everyday attention. The saying describes a risk of being overlooked, without proving that distance ends affection or that a forgotten person has less worth.
05 / The reading room
Marcus Aurelius
Free edition · US public domain
Meric Casaubon translation (1634), later edited edition
Short reflections on attention, duty and living with other people. The linked English edition uses older language, so its wording differs from many modern translations.
About this book ↗Plato
Free edition · US public domain
Benjamin Jowett translation
A sustained dialogue about justice, education and the organisation of a community. Read its proposals as arguments to examine, rather than a collection of simple rules.
About this book ↗Laozi (traditional attribution)
Free edition · US public domain
James Legge translation; publication year not supplied in the linked digitized text
A compact sequence of reflections on action, restraint and the limits of force. Legge’s translation offers one historical English reading, not a definitive version of the text.
About this book ↗06 / Leave room for chance
A quiet space for the words that matter. Five visual worlds.
No account. No subscription. Just a little room to think.
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