We had the incredible honor to interview bestselling author Alain de Botton and you can now read our interview with him. He concluded one of his answers with the following piece of wisdom: Serenity therefore begins with pessimism. We must learn to disappoint ourselves at leisure before the world ever has a chance to slap us by […]
“Whenever you suffer pain, keep in mind that it’s nothing to be ashamed of and that it can’t degrade your guiding intelligence, nor keep it from acting rationally and for the common good. And in most cases you should be helped by the saying of Epicurus, that pain is never unbearable or unending, so you […]
“Make sure you’re not made ‘Emperor,’ avoid that imperial stain. It can happen to you, so keep yourself simple, good, pure, saintly, plain, a friend of justice, god- fearing, gracious, affectionate, and strong for your proper work. Fight to remain the person that philosophy wished to make you. Revere the gods, and look after each […]
From its beginning Stoicism and politics were inseparable. After all, three of the most prominent Stoics—Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Cato—operated in political life at its highest levels. Marcus Aurelius was emperor, Seneca advised Nero, and Cato was the senator who after nearly twenty years of courageous political leadership, and civil war, made the ultimate sacrifice […]
Below is a guest post from Philip Ghezelbash, as he offered to share five of the most important lessons he took away from Stoicism. Enjoy! *** Live Every Day As If It Were Your Last Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher. He once said: “You live as if you were destined to live forever, no […]
This post was originally published on RyanHoliday.net. Almost exactly ten years ago, I bought the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius on Amazon. Amazon Prime didn’t exist then and to qualify for free shipping, I had to purchase a few other books at the same time. Two or three days later they all arrived. It’s a medium sized paperback, mostly white […]
Derren Brown is Britain’s most celebrated illusionist and magician who has gained worldwide fame for his seemingly psychic abilities and has been dubbed a “real-life Jedi master.” Derren has stunned audiences with mind-blowing performances (such as his Russian Roulette stunt on live TV, which has nearly 3 million views on YouTube) and has been called […]
As an undergraduate, Professor Brad Inwood read the Stoics only by chance, thanks to an obscure anthology which had snippets from Epictetus. The philosophy resonated with him but it was only once his original Ph.D dissertation on Aristotle “melted down” that he turned his personal fascination with the Stoics into an endeavour that has made […]
This is a guest post by Monil Shah Today, as our societies are growing, it seems like the line between good and bad, moral and immoral, just and unjust, is getting blurrier. We’re focusing a lot of our energy in getting that new car, hoping our kids’ picture gets a hundred likes and telling our […]