How does one live a meaningful life? This is the question that author Emily Esfahani Smith has obsessed over for years and has thoughtfully written about in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Atlantic and TIME. “I used to think the whole purpose of life was the pursuit of happiness,” […]
“It is better to conquer our grief than to deceive it. For if it has withdrawn, being merely beguiled by pleasures and preoccupations, it starts up again and from its very respite gains force to savage us. But the grief that has been conquered by reason is calmed for ever. I am not therefore going […]
We had the incredible opportunity to interview Tewodros Ashenafi, the Ethiopian entrepreneur and CEO of SouthWest Energy. Earlier in his life he survived a plane crash, and he reached out to say how much Stoic philosophy has helped him to thrive and emerge stronger afterwards. He is an avid fan of Marcus Aurelius and rereads […]
We know what you’re thinking: WTF. The theatrics. The emotions. The snap judgments. The nonsense. The name-calling. The bickering. The baby-kissing and back-slapping. Politics and stoicism seem to have nothing in common, especially in our overheated era of “fake news” and “alternative facts.” And some of that might be true. But it’s worth pausing to […]
This is a guest post by Joshua Strommen MD, FACEP. His tour of duty in Afghanistan introduced him to the Stoic Philosophers, and a new way to see his specialty. *** Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, unpretentious, a friend of justice, god-fearing, kind, full of affection, strong for your proper work. Strive hard to remain the […]
This is a guest post by Matt Joyner I didn’t expect to lose my mother when I was 16—it took me completely by surprise. While still in the formative years of my adult life, cancer came out of left field and took someone who I never imagined I would be forced to live without. It […]
Author Jules Evans, best known for his fantastic book Philosophy for Life and blog of the same name, was one of the first people we interviewed here for the site. Now Jules has a new book out, The Art of Losing Control, and we reached out to learn more about it. Both our interview and […]
It’s for good reason Laura Kennedy has earned herself an enormous following for her thoughtful “Coping” column in The Irish Times. She first started the column in early 2016 at age 27 after the passing of her mother, as an “attempt to use philosophy as the pragmatic skill it is to navigate the very natural […]
Two decades before the current resurgence of Stoicism, philosophical writer and performing musician Sharon Lebell translated Epictetus and put together The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness, which contains 93 instructions to face each day and the challenges that it presents in a virtuous way. It’s a beautiful book that […]