Hello there, If there was a trophy for “most likely candidate to make it as a stand-up comedian” award for our ancient Stoic guides, then it would be unanimously awarded to Epictetus. For this week’s exercise, I will use some words from his Enchiridion VII: “Don’t seek everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything […]
Hello there, For this exercise, let us look at an excerpt from the Moral Letters of Seneca to Lucillius XLVII: “Show me someone who isn’t a slave! One is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to power, and all are slaves to fear…No servitude is more abject than the self-imposed.” You may not like the sound of it, […]
First off, this will be the first time I show my face to my readers and followers EVER! There are no other pictures or videos out there so come out and and meet me for the first time! Secondly, since I am stuck at home, I get to finally do a live AMA event I have been wanting to do. […]
Hello there, The Coronavirus (COVID 19) has changed the way we all live. If you’re like me, you are one of many who are living in extended isolation. But no matter where you are in the world, you have been (and continue to be) faced with uncertainties, panic and fear. With that in mind, we can still look back at […]
Hello there, I’m going to try and shorten our weekly exercises a little and simplify them. So let’s get started with a quote from Epictetus’ Discourses III 3.18: “What is bad luck? Opinion. What are conflict, dispute, blame, accusation, irreverence, and frivolity? They are all opinions, and more than that, they are opinions that lie outside of our own reasoned […]
Sitting around this weekend looking for something to listen to? Here’s a short and informative interview of Anderson Silver by Jay Vasquez from the Inspired by Fire Podcast.
Hello there, For this exercise, let us look at some words from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations II 11: “Let each thing you would do, say or intend be like that of a dying person.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: as much as I love Epictetus’ words for their humour and sarcasm, I love and appreciate Marcus Aurelius’ […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, let us look at an excerpt from the Moral Letters of Seneca to Lucillius XC 14: “How, I ask you, can you consistently admire both Diogenes and Daedalus? Which of these two seems a wise man – the one who invented the saw, or the one who, on seeing a boy drink water from […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, let us find inspiration in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations IX 42: I have not owned cable television in almost a decade. But when I end up somewhere with cable TV access and flip on the boob-tube, I find nothing but reality TV shows. Even on channels (supposedly) dedicated to learning, we find series after series […]
Here’s the final exercise for Season 1 of Stoicism for a Better Life, and boy is it a doozie! Let’s walk through a logical mental exercise to narrow down what it is we can actually and tangibly do to live the best possible life we can. Want to send in a voice message to Anderson Silver? You may have your […]