Princes, especially new ones, have found more fidelity and assistance in those men who in the beginning of their rule were distrusted than among those who in the beginning were trusted. Pandolfo Petrucci, Prince of Siena, ruled his state more by those who had been...
Aside from the connection it posits between making money and being good, the modern ideal of a successful life imputes a further connection: between making money and being happy. This idea in turn rests on three assumptions. First, that to identify what will make us happy...
This consent, or concord, amongst so many men, though it may be made by the fear of a present invader, or by the hope of a present conquest, or booty, and endure as long as that action endureth, nevertheless, by the diversity of judgments and passions...
In February 63, Seneca’s friend Lucilius, a civil servant working in Sicily, learned of a lawsuit against him which threatened to end his career and disgrace his name for ever. He wrote to Seneca. "You may expect that I will advise you to picture a happy...
One day a man cooked the largest of the animals he had in his herd and said to his brother: - Go out and invite our friends and neighbors to come and eat beef with us. The brother came out and shouted: - Help! Help! The house is...
I grew up in the sea and poverty was sumptuous, then I lost the sea and found all luxuries grey and poverty unbearable. Since then, I have been waiting. I wait for the homebound ships, the house of the waters, the limpidity of day. I...
Pharaoh’s Dream 1Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile. 2And lo, there came up out of the Nile seven [healthy] cows, sleek and handsome and fat; and they grazed in the reed grass [in a marshy pasture]. 3Then...
When others' misfortune feels like a threat. In October, Jonathan Martin, a football player on the Miami Dolphins, left the team due to mistreatment from teammates, which included receiving threatening phone messages from another player. The incident has raised concerns about hazing within the NFL, but...
Only a fool expects to find happiness continually, or to hold onto it once found. Happiness is always a by-product of some feeling or action. Even knowing this, there are many of us who spend our lives frantically looking for happiness, constantly in mad pursuit...
Stress quickly begins with the perception of threat to our personal existence. Then the emotions join inanger, fear, or both. Before long a chain reaction of neurochemical responses is triggered and released throughout the body for fight or flight. Not all stress is bad for...
