- Why do we complain of Nature? She has shown herself kindly; life, if you know how to use it, is long. But one man is possessed by an avarice that is insatiable, another by a toilsome devotion to tasks that are useless; one man is besotted with wine, another is paralyzed by sloth; one man is exhausted by an ambition that always hangs upon the decision of others, another, driven on by the greed of the trader, is led over all lands and all seas by the hope of gain; some are tormented by a passion for war and are always either bent upon inflicting danger upon others or concerned about their own; some there are who are worn out by voluntary servitude in a thankless attendance upon the great; many are kept busy either in the pursuit of other men’s fortune or in complaining of their own; many, following no fixed aim, shifting and inconstant and dissatisfied, are plunged by their fickleness into plans that are ever new; some have no fixed principle by which to direct their course, but Fate takes them unawares while they loll and yawn—so surely does it happen that I cannot doubt the truth of that utterance which the greatest of poets delivered with all the seeming of an oracle: “The part of life we really live is small.”[1] For all the rest of existence is not life, but merely time. Vices beset us and surround us on every side, and they do not permit us to rise anew and lift up our eyes for the discernment of truth, but they keep us down when once they have overwhelmed us and we are chained to lust. Their victims are never allowed to return to their true selves; if ever they chance to find some release, like the waters of the deep sea which continue to heave even after the storm is past, they are tossed about, and no rest from their lusts abides. Think you that I am speaking of the wretches whose evils are admitted? Look at those whose prosperity men flock to behold; they are smothered by their blessings. To how many are riches a burden! From how many do eloquence and the daily straining to display their powers draw forth blood! How many are pale from constant pleasures! To how many does the throng of clients that crowd about them leave no freedom! In short, run through the list of all these men from the lowest to the highest—this man desires an advocate,[2] this one answers the call, that one is on trial, that one defends him, that one gives sentence; no one asserts his claim to himself, everyone is wasted for the sake of another. Ask about the men whose names are known by heart, and you will see that these are the marks that distinguish them: A cultivates B and B cultivates C; no one is his own master. And then certain men show the most senseless indignation—they complain of the insolence of their superiors, because they were too busy to see them when they wished an audience! But can anyone have the hardihood to complain of the pride of another when he himself has no time to attend to himself? After all, no matter who you are, the great man does sometimes look toward you even if his face is insolent, he does sometimes condescend to listen to your words, he permits you to appear at his side; but you never deign to look upon yourself, to give ear to yourself. There is no reason, therefore, to count anyone in debt for such services, seeing that, when you performed them, you had no wish for another’s company, but could not endure your own.
- Seneca the Younger
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_shortness_of_life/Chapter_II
I highly encourage everyone to read these letters by Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, at least once in their life. Preferably earlier than later.
It depends on what you’re after from a server.
There’s region specific ones, like the server I’m on just now (feddit.uk) being UK themed. That means when I look at my “Local” feed it’s generally filled with content specific to the UK. There’s others for Canada, Netherlands, Denmark, etc, probably US states as well I would assume.
Or maybe you’re after a server with a political ideology. Lemmy.ml is for Marxist-Leninists, dbzer0 and slrpnk.net are for anarchists, and there’s even a MAGA themed server but I forget its name just now and don’t care to go searching.
There’s also servers that aim to be just a general purpose, jack of all trades master of none kind of place. Your server, Lemmy.world probably being the biggest of those. It has a bit of everything and doesn’t really specialise in one particular topic. Probably the closest to a clone of Reddit.
There’s also servers that are supposed to be safe spaces for particular groups of people. For example, blahaj.zone is for LGBTQ+ people (or those just fans of cuddly shark toys).
As markz said, have a browse of this site to see all the servers and see which fits best with what you want from a link aggregator site. There’s nothing stopping you having accounts on different servers for different purposes either. They all have different rules, content, and block lists so the experience on each is unique.
Good luck exploring, welcome to the Fediverse, and have fun!
https://join-lemmy.org/instances