The Necklace

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  “SHE WAS one of those pretty, charming young ladies, born, as if through an error of destiny, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no hopes, no means of becoming known, appreciated, loved, and married by a man either rich or distinguished; and she allowed herself to marry a petty clerk in the office of the Board of Education. . . .  She had neither frocks nor jewels, nothing. And she loved only those things. She felt that she was made for them. She had such a desire to please, to be sought after, to be clever, and courted.” —THE NECKLACE Guy de Maupassant    France, 1884 (pic by Grok) Read this short story here:  https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-maupassant/short-story/the-necklace

Desire and Aversion, Motivation, and Judgement

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“There are three areas in which the person who would be wise and good must be trained.

The first has to do with desires and aversions—that a person may never miss the mark in desires nor fall into what repels them. 


The second has to do with impulses to act and not to act—and more broadly, with duty—that a person may act deliberately for good reasons and not carelessly. 


The third has to do with freedom from deception and composure and the whole area of judgment, the assent our mind gives to its perceptions. 


Of these areas, the chief and most urgent is the first which has to do with the passions, for strong emotions arise only when we fail in our desires and aversions.” 


— Epictetus, (50 - 135 AD) “DISCOURSES”, 3.2.1–3 a 

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