Hello there, For this week’s exercise, let look to Marcus Aurelius’ wise words from his Meditations IV 7: “Efface the opinion, I am harmed, and at once the feeling of being harmed disappears; efface the feeling, and the harm disappears at once.” An oldie but a goodie. We’re going right back into the core of Stoicism with this one: All […]
Hello there, Diogenes Laertius was a biographer and wrote extensively about the lives and philosophies of the ancient Greek philosophers. The book of his we have today is the translation Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, which contains a lot of the information we have about the predominant philosophers of ancient Greece (which was in Ionia; a region on the central […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, I will look for inspiration from Epictetus’ Discourses. This is II 1.21: “It will even do to socialize with men of good character, in order to model your life on theirs, whether you choose someone living or someone from the past.” We are all human beings; fatally flawed…full of emotions…primitive more often than we […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, let us circle back to Seneca (It’s been a while). This is from his moral letters to Luciluis, I 7.1: “Do you ask me what you should regard as especially to be avoided? I say, crowds; for as yet you cannot trust yourself to them with safety.” You have two ears and one […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, let us find some inspiration from an often overlooked Stoic teacher Gaius Musonius Rufus. This is from the translated fragments by Cynthia King [Stobaeus 3.1.48 = 3.1. 77. Chapter 1: about virtue.]: “It is not possible to live well today unless you treat it as your last day.” Little known fact, Musonius Rufus […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, let us find some inspiration from Epictetus (who’s teacher will be our inspiration next week). This is from the Enchiridion (not to be confused with Epictetus’ Discourses) LI 2 : “…it depends on a single day and single action whether progress is to be lost or secured. ” All we have control over […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, let us once again look to Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, which he wrote himself to keep disciplined in his own Stoic practices. This is VII 56-57: “Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love […]
Hello there, For this exercise, let us look at an excerpt from Epictetus’ Discourses I 6-1&2: “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.” Amor Fati…most of us have heard this core Stoic precept already, right? […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, I will look for inspiration from the Moral Letters of Seneca to Lucillius CVIII 27-27: “Let us therefore set out whole-heartedly, leaving aside out many distractions and exert ourselves in this single purpose, before we realize too late the swift and unstoppable flight of time and are left behind. As each day arises, welcome […]
Hello there, This week, let us find some inspiration from the emperor himself, in keeping things simple and focusing on the one job we have. This is from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations VII 15: “Whatever anyone does or says, for my part I am bound to the good. In the same way an emerald or gold or purple might always proclaim: […]