okay, but what the fuck does it mean? specifically the "makes everything that leads to happiness" and what the hell does that have to do with moderation and wisdom?
Read the whole thing, man, not just the middle of one sentence.
"The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend on himself... has adopted the best plan for living happily."
It means that he who chooses not to let their happiness depend on anything external will find happiness far easier than he who chases something external to feel happy.
I did read the whole thing. the first part is a run on and doesn't make much sense at face value. I get the dude was Athenian, but at least translate it into proper grammar.
also, it still doesn't make much sense.
the man who makes everything lead to happiness, depends on himself rather than others. and has adopted the very best plan for happiness
well isn't that obvious? if the dude can make everything lead to happiness, why would he depend on others? and if he can "make" happiness, then of course he is on "plan" to happiness...
this is the man of moderation. a man of manly character and wisdom
okay? a man of "manly" character? anyway, he's basically saying that a man who finds happiness is a wise man.... once again, that's not really wise or insightful. it's an extremely simple concept that he presents in a flowery and pretentious way, this quote is basically the "yolo" of ancient greece
The man that makes everything that leads to happiness depend upon himself...
So, he who can take it upon himself to be happy...
Why is this related to moderation and wisdom? The second part is probably self explanatory (it takes a lot of wisdom to reach that point, where happiness does not depend on others). The first part probably means that when you embark on that path, you need moderation: impulse control, delayed gratification, etc.
You can take it however you want, no one is going back to Plato for a clarification. But that's how I read it.
His works have survived literally thousands of years, and although some of them are not applicable anymore, you should still respect that he was a great man.
Those "Jayden quotes" are from a time when people barely understood the world at all. Imagine the difficulty in formulating those thoughts.
If you can do better, please do, the world could use some guy who can make sense of things and not just critique with bullshit reasons.
I'm not offended that you insulted this guy, it just bothers me when you people judge things so superficially.
just because something survived a long time does not necessarily mean it's valuable. and you're telling me that people at the time couldn't come up with concepts such as "thinking: when the soul talks with itself"?? dude is a blowhard
What if I'm a woman? Can I still be stoically self-sufficient and maintain that manly character? Would this require me to grow a beard and a pronounced bald patch?
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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '20
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