You have to be one person, either good or bad

Sweet Bites for June 20, 2025

Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.

This month we’re exploring the theme of Morality.

Welcome to another edition of Sweet Bites, Mind Candy’s bite-sized newsletter with thought-provoking finds to send you into the weekend with.

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💭 5 Stoic Thoughts

Choose the type of person you want to be

“You have to be one person, either good or bad. You have to work either on your commanding-faculty or on external things.”

• Epictetus

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We control our thoughts and how we act

“Your ability to control your thoughts - treat it with respect. It's all that protects your mind from false perceptions - false to your nature and that of all rational beings. It's what makes thoughtfulness possible, and affection for other people, and submission to the divine.”

• Marcus Aurelius

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We are meant for virtue

“Zeno … said that the goal is to live in harmony with Nature, which means to live according to virtue; for Nature leads us to virtue.”

Diogenes Laertius

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Careful how you judge

“You should love after you have judged, not judge after you have loved. We pay the price for negligence in many things, but most of all for our carelessness in selecting and making friends.”

• Cicero

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Their problem, my opportunity

“Someone despises me. That's their problem. Mine: not to do or say anything despicable. Someone hates me. Their problem. Mine: to be patient and cheerful with everyone, including them... As long as you do what's proper to your nature, and accept what the world's nature has in store - as long as you work for others' good, by any and all means - what is there that can harm you?”

• Marcus Aurelius

🧘🏻This Week’s Monday Meditation

🦉 This Week’s Wednesday Wisdom

✏️This Week’s Most Popular Note

📰 Article Worthy of a Read

Morality aside, there’s another good reason to love your enemies by Alex Moran

“…you should love your enemies not merely (or, at least, not only) in order to follow the dictates of a moral tradition, but rather out of self-interest, and, in particular, out of respect for your own psychological wellbeing. When viewed from this angle, the guidance to love your enemies no longer appears so oppressive, nor impossibly demanding. On the contrary, it presents itself as a path to freedom; a means of ridding yourself of the weight of resentment and hostility.”

📖 Book to Continue Weekly Theme

A Decent Life by Todd May

We’re not all going to be saints. We’re not going to get it all right in our life. In A Decent Life, May looks to help the reader in building their own moral life in the simplest of ways.

“We need not be altruists to be citizens of the world, and our participation in this citizenry is not only beneficial to others. It might be a source of joy or meaning that cannot be had through the channels of living we find immediately around us.”

📚 Wisdom

“The core of morality lies in our intimate emotional identification with others, and our resulting desire to help them and not harm them.”

Alison Gopnik

Source: The Philosophical Baby

🎥 Video Worth a Watch

In the below video, Gregory Sadler breaks down zepictdgus’ teachings on duties and who we owe them to. In other words, our roles in the world in relation to others.

Think someone you know would enjoy these? Hit below to forward and spread the love.

Until next time,

D.A. DiGerolamo

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