【每日斯多葛】2026年7月8日

July 8th

STOP MONKEYING AROUND

"Enough of this miserable, whining life. Stop monkeying around! Why are you troubled? What's new here? What's so confounding? The one responsible? Take a good look. Or just the matter itself? Then look at that. There's nothing else to look at. And as far as the gods go, by now you could try being more straightforward and kind. It's the same, whether you've examined these things for a hundred years, or only three."—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 9.37

"Character," Joan Didion would write in one of her best essays, "the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life—is the source from which self-respect springs."

Marcus is urging us not to waste time complaining about what we haven't got or how things have worked out. We have to quit monkeying around and be the owners of our own lives. Character can be developed, and when it is, self-respect will ensue. But that means starting and getting serious about it. Not later, not after certain questions have been answered or distractions dealt with, but now. Right now. Taking responsibility is the first step.

To be without this character is the worst of all fates. As Didion put it in "On Self-Respect," "To live without self-respect is to lie awake some night, beyond the reach of warm milk, the phenobarbital, and the sleeping hand on the coverlet, counting up the sins of commission and omission, the trusts betrayed, the promises subtly broken, the gifts irrevocably wasted through sloth or cowardice or carelessness."

You're so much better than that.

7月8日

别再胡闹了

“受够了这种可怜而怨声载道的生活。别再胡闹了！你为什么烦恼？这里有什么新鲜事吗？有什么如此令人困惑？是那个负有责任的人吗？那就好好看看他。或者只是事情本身吗？那就看看事情本身。没有别的东西需要看了。至于神明，你现在也可以试着变得更加坦率和仁慈。无论你已经审视这些事情一百年，还是只有三年，道理都是一样的。”——马可·奥勒留，《沉思录》，9.37

“品格，”琼·狄迪恩在她最优秀的一篇文章中写道，“也就是愿意为自己的人生承担责任——是自尊由以产生的源泉。”

马可是在敦促我们，不要浪费时间抱怨自己没有得到什么，或者事情怎么会变成这样。我们必须停止胡闹，成为自己人生的主人。品格是可以培养的；一旦品格形成，自尊便会随之而来。但这意味着要开始行动，并认真对待这件事。不是以后，不是等某些问题得到解答之后，不是等干扰被处理之后，而是现在。就是现在。承担责任，是第一步。

没有这种品格，是所有命运中最糟糕的一种。正如狄迪恩在《论自尊》中所说：“没有自尊地活着，就是在某个夜晚醒着躺在那里，温牛奶、苯巴比妥，以及被子上那只沉睡的手都已无法触及你；你细数着自己所犯的作为之罪与不作为之罪，细数着被背叛的信任、被微妙地打破的承诺，以及那些因懒惰、怯懦或粗心而不可挽回地浪费掉的天赋。”

你远比那样更好。