“I have never wished to cater to the crowd;
for what I know,
they do not approve,
and what they approve,
I do not know.”
~
This is a sentence by Epicurus, which can be found in one of Seneca's letters to Lucilius 1 and which I love.
Why do I like it so much?
Because at the heart of this statement lies an unshakeable conviction of one's own autonomy and intellectual integrity.
It is never subject to the blind influence of a trend, a fashion or a current of thought.
I am me.
Does that mean I'm too narrow-minded?
Pretentious?
No,
just cautious. What interests me are the values of ideas, their validity. How these align with my representation of what is good and what the right action is to me.
It's doesn’t matter what they think,
what their preferences are,
what sneakers they buy,
what music they listen to,
which book they are reading,
how they spend their time on their phone.
What matters to me is what is right, what is true.
What about you {{username}}?