“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.” ~ Epictetus
Now, on first reading this quote, it seems entirely sensible and sound, and yet, so selfish. What about the rest of the world that suffer? Or those too busy and tired to uplift others. Anyone who expects others to demand your best without demanding it of yourself first is ridiculous. Epictetus is a fool to not see deeper into his phrases.
But then, we are all fools to accept this at face value without checking the reference to the quote. The translation and the interpretation of the original text in Greek.
Many people post quotes to uplift others. But without knowing the book where the quote comes from, the pagination, etc.
We are lost in a world of meme philosophy. Gandhi quotes without references and better yet misspelling his name. That's the one that gets my goat.
But the art of interpretation is lost if we take every quote at face value and don't read deeper into what the quote doesn't say. Or how it's no longer applicable to our time.
What strikes me the most is how different from Jesus' stance on the castaways of society, and what this quote of Epictetus says. They are diametrically opposed.
I beg of people to not simply gloss a quote but to question it to your experience and what you would expect out of others and life itself. Reading influences the mind at a subliminal level when not addressed.
Platitudes quickly devolve into hate speech. The backslide is no comeuppance.
+--+Albrecht+D%C3%BCrer.bmp)
