Embrace the Journey
I recently hit a milestone birthday, have had a couple of health scares in my immediate family, and watched an old friend lose his tiny daughter to brain cancer. Needless to say, I have had …
Degrees of Indifference
Next follows an exposition of the difference between things; for if we maintained that all things were absolutely indifferent, the whole of life would be thrown into confusion, as it is by Aristo, and no …
Choosing Not to Suffer
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. William Shakespeare Man is affected not by events but by the view he takes of them. Seneca Humans choose to suffer. I do …
The Dichotomy of Control
There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever affairs are our own. Beyond …
Memento Mori
When giving your wife or child a kiss, repeat to yourself, “I am kissing a mortal.” Then you won’t be so distraught if they are taken from you. Epictetus We were recently discussing the Four …
Self-Control
Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and …
Courage
Let us be brave in the face of adversity. Seneca The past few weeks, we have been examining the four primary Stoic Virtues. We previously discussed Wisdom and Justice. We continue our exploration of the …
Justice
In my previous two posts, I discussed the Four Virtues of Stoicism in general and then examined Wisdom in a little more detail. This post focuses on another of the Virtues: Justice. Justice lies at …
Wisdom
In a previous post, we discussed the Four Virtues of Stoicism – Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Self-Control. This post and the next three will focus on each of the Four Virtues in more detail, beginning …
The Stoic Virtues
If, at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, prudence, self-control, courage—than a mind satisfied that it has succeeded in enabling you to act rationally, and satisfied to accept …