—Seneca
Category: Freedom
the difference between rich and wealthy…
— from https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-rich-and-the-wealthy/ ”… Rich means you have cash to buy stuff. Wealth means you have unspent savings and investments that provide some level of intangible and lasting pleasure – independence, autonomy, controlling your time, and doing what you want to do, when you want to do it, with whom you want to do it
We think a king is free… in fact, terror hangs over him…
“One might think that the most powerful man has the most choices, but in reality he has the fewest. Too much depends on his every move. The tyrant’s choices are the narrowest of all. His life—the nation!—hangs in the balance. He can no longer drift or explore, join or flee. He cannot reinvent himself, because
The highest dividend money pays is the ability to control time…
— Morgan Housel (link) “Being able to do what you want, when you want, where you want, with who you want and for as long as you want provides a lasting level of happiness that no amount of “fancy stuff” can ever offer. The thrill of having fancy stuff wears off quickly. But a job with
if governments and corporations succeed in hacking the human animal, the easiest people to manipulate will be those who believe in free will… Humans certainly have a will – but it isn’t free. You cannot decide what desires you have… Every choice depends on a lot of biological, social and personal conditions that you cannot determine for yourself. I can choose what to eat, whom to marry and whom to vote for, but these choices are determined in part by my genes, my biochemistry, my gender, my family background, my national culture, etc. – and I didn’t choose which genes or family to have
– Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s own attitude in any given set of circumstances
— Viktor Frankl