Tobias 12,10

“But they that commit sin and iniquity, are enemies to their own soul. “

Socrates prayer in Phaedrus dialogue

 i just read this briliant piece:

 ”…..Dear Pan, and all you other gods who live here, grant that I may become beautiful within, and that whatever outward things I have may be in harmony with the spirit inside me. May I understand that it is only the wise who are rich, and may I have only as much money as a temperate person needs. — Is there anything else that we can ask for, Phaedrus? For me, that prayer is enough”

Do the Impossible: Know Thyself by Theodore Dalrymple

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=5863&sec_id=5863

this is the classic. On one hand you find neuroscientisc, who present themselves as a modern Prometheus meets LaMettrie.  Theese guys are just pathetic and so naive. And on the other you have got honest intellectuall (Dalrymple) , so tied up in modernity, that  altough he seeks , he cant his way out of it.  He resigns in the face of it.

This is a true “El tema de nuestro tiempo”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ortega_y_Gasset

i dont pretend to have an answer  (yet ) , but one thing i know both of them are going in th wrong direction

How to be sucesfull…..work hard i guess

At 74 years old, Nick (Bolletierri)  is still going strong, rising at 4:20 am every morning to get to the gym by 5:00 am. He starts coaching at 5:30 am, stopping only for a quick lunch before finishing his last lesson at 7:00 p.m.

http://www.nickbollettieri.com/aboutNick/bioDetail.cfm

i cant decide for years if this reasonong is false or not

added that, since I knew some perfections which I did not possess, I was not the only being who existed, but that there must of necessity be some other being, more perfect, on whom I depended, and from whom I had acquired all that I possessed; for if I had existed alone and independent of all other, so that I had of myself all this little whereby I participated in the Perfect Being

A RULE OF LIFE…..Rene Descartes

My third maxim was to endeavour always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and in general to bring myself to believe that there is nothing wholly in our power except our thoughts. And I believe that herein lay the secret of those philosophers who, in the days of old, could withdraw from the domination of fortune and, despite pain and poverty, challenge the felicity of their gods.
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so deep was my content in discovering every day by its means truths which seemed to me important, yet were unknown to the world.

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For nine years, therefore, I went up and down the world a spectator rather than an actor. These nine years slipped away before I had begun to seek for the foundations of any philosophy more certain, nor perhaps should I have dared to undertake the quest had it not been put about that I had already succeeded

What makes a good trader

The work ethic can never be overstaded….i have kept a diary on every day in the market…. If i do not do my work my profit suffers…There is no shortcut in trading, the market will quickly find if you are LAZY.

 by Mark D. Cook

http://www.itws.org/mca/What%20Makes%20A%20Trader%20Successful.pdf

Marcus Aurelius Meditations …excerpts

me, our minds being both extracted from the Deity; since no man can do me a real injury because no man can force me to misbehave myself

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a world without gods or Providence is not worth a man’s while to live in

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Think upon nothing but what you could willingly tell about, so that if your soul were laid open there would appear nothing but what was sincere, good-natured and public-spirited. A man thus qualified is a sort of priest and minister of the gods, and makes a right use of the divinity within him.

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 in the whole compass of human life, you find anything preferable to justice and truth, temperance and fortitude, or to a mind self-satisfied with its own rational conduct and entirely resigned to fate, then turn to it as to your supreme happiness. But if there be nothing more valuable than the divinity within you, if all things are trifles in comparison with this, then do not divide your allegiance. Let your choice run all one way, and be resolute for that which is best. As for other speculations, throw them once for all out of your head.

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 One’s own heart is a place the most free from crowd and noise in the world if only one’s thoughts are serene and the mind well ordered

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If understanding be common to us all, then reason, its cause, must be common, too. And so also must the reason which governs conduct by commands and prohibitions be common to us all. Mankind is therefore under one common law

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action is the end of your being….Shall not a man act like a man?

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Some men, when they do you a kindness, ask for the payment of gratitude; others, more modest, remember the favour and look upon you as their debtor. But there are yet other benefactors who forget their good deeds; and these are like the vine, which is satisfied by being fruitful in its kind and bears a bunch of grapes without expecting any thanks for it. A truly kind man never talks of a good turn that he has done, but does another as soon as he can, just like a vine that bears again the next season.
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Throw me into what climate or state your please, for all that I will keep my soul content

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 How fulsome and hollow does that man seem who cries: ‘I’m resolved to deal sincerely with you!’ Hark you, friend, what need of all this flourish? Let your actions speak. Your face ought to vouch for you. I would have virtue look out of the eye no less apparently than love does. A man of integrity and good nature can never be concealed, for his character is wrought into his countenance.
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I have often wondered how it is that everyone should love himself best and yet value his neighbour’s opinion of him more than his own

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Meditations

Marcus Aurelius
http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/marcusa.htm

What a joke in WSJ to day… anchoring + value defined as recent high. Its great advice for chicken eggs trader

“With so many other industries at records, the challenge for investors will be to find stocks that can go higher still.”

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Broad Rally Makes Picking
Next Hot Stock Harder

Record-Setting Indexes
Embolden Many Pros;
Will Tech Chip In, Too?

By PETER A. MCKAY
February 12, 2007; Page 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117123430404605174.html?mod=mkts_main_news_hs_h

Youth & knowledge

One of the advantages of youth is that the young don’t know what they don’t know.  While a savvy veteran might abandon a project when obstacles arise, the novice will soldier on , and sometimes get the job done , despite the odds.

Harold Sirkin,  in Barrons , 02/05/07