Who is the richest man in the world? Jeff Bezos? Bill Gates? Warren Buffet? Well… surprise… Vladimir Putin. Yes, the former KBG agent, and current Russian leader is estimated to be the richest man in the world. Forbes can’t confirm, only because much of Putin’s wealth is hidden and slippery. So my beach musing of the day… would I rather be this “richest man in the world”, or myself? Marcus Aurelius had a great answer:
“Alexander and Caesar and Pompey. Compared with Diogenes, Heraclitus, Socrates? The philosophers knew the what, the why, the how. Their minds were their own. The others? Nothing but anxiety and enslavement”
OK, I am not a famous philosopher. But I am a bit of a Stoic. And strongly Epicurean. Yes, that great philosopher Epicurus. That guy could think! Here are a few I stand with:
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.
The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.”
Rock on, Epicurus!