Hello there, For this week’s exercise, I would like to draw from my second most favourite character from the movie Gladiator, and my #1 favourite Roman Emperor who was also a Stoic, Marcus Aurelius. This is from his Meditations IX 42 : “Where is the harm or the strangeness in the boor acting like a boor? See whether you are […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, I will look for inspiration from some simple and direct words from Epictetus’ Discourses II 2.12: “For when you subject what is your own to externals, then from henceforth be a slave.” This is a fairly popular quote I have seen float around the internet under a….cosmetically uplifted variance: There is only one way […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, let us find some inspiration in the words of Epictetus from his Discourses IV 12.1: “Is it possible to be free from error? Not by any means, but it is possible to be a person always stretching to avoid error. For we must be content to at least escape a few mistakes by never […]
Hello there, Let’s stick with the short and prompt approach to these weekly exercise posts, and who better than the most direct of our ancient guides to help us once again. This is from Epictetus’ Discourses IV 4.23: “In short, you must remember this – that if you hold anything dear outside of your own reasoned choice, you will have […]
Hello there, For this exercise, let us seek some inspiration from Epictetus’ Discourses III 24 84: “Whenever you experience the pangs of losing something, don’t treat it like a part of yourself but as a breakable glass, so when it falls you will remember that and won’t be troubled. So too, whenever you kiss your child, sibling, or friend, don’t […]
Hello there, For this week’s exercise, let us look at an excerpt from the last Great Emperor’s own journal. This is from the Meditation IX 5: “Often injustice lies in what you aren’t doing, not only in what you are doing.” As the Emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius fought “injustice” and “evil” in war, politics, natural disasters, economics, plagues and […]
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, […]
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 […]