Judgements over appearances

In my ongoing quest to find the right way to live I subscribe to Thus Spoke Epictetus, a service that emails an Epictetus quote each day. Today’s quote:

“A man is not indeed like a stone or a log, that you can show what he is by just pointing a finger, but you show what he is as a man, when you show what are his judgements.” -Epictetus, Discourses 3.2.12 [Matheson Trans.]

So much effort is wasted on external appearances when the true measure of a man is in the choices that he makes and how he lives. The same wisdom is echoed by Thoreau in Walden when he says:

“I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.” -Henry David Thoreau

Yours truly,

Mr. X

…contemplative…