There is a line in a recent profile of Kirk Cousins, the quarterback who last week, after months of non-stop media coverage, finally signed with the Minnesota Vikings as one of the highest paid players in the game. There’s plenty of interesting Stoicism in the article—from Cousins’ disdain of money, his dedication to family, his pursuit of […]
Open any Stoic thinker and you’ll find the instruction to live according to nature. Stoic Emperor Marcus Aurelius put it this way in Meditations: “Philosophy requires only what your nature already demands.” The founder of Stoicism, Zeno, sweepingly defined nature as “the way things work,” and wisdom as acting in accordance with natural laws. Another […]
Our recent interview with Professor Joey Dodson on the links between Christianity and Stoicism received wide attention from the Daily Stoic community, and we decided to follow up by interviewing Dr. Kevin Vost, the author of The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living. Turns out he has a long history […]
In his moral essay, On the Shortness of Life, Seneca, the Stoic philosopher and playwright, offers us an urgent reminder on the non-renewability of our most important resource: our time. It is a required reading for anyone who wishes to live to their full potential, and it is a manifesto on how to get back […]
It is tomorrow that marks the anniversary of the death of one of humanity’s greatest specimens. On March 17th, 180, in what is now modern day Vienna, Emperor Marcus Aurelius breathed his last breath and died. We don’t know exactly what his last words were. Cassius Dio claims that Marcus spoke his last sentence to his guard, saying to him, […]
On this day 2,062 years ago, Rome’s first emperor, Julius Caesar, was stabbed to death by a group of senators who hoped to restore the Roman republic. These senators were led by Brutus, who was married to Cato’s daughter, an avid student of all schools of philosophy, including the Stoics. Caesar was stabbed many times […]
Jordan Peterson, a former professor at Harvard and now a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, has become a sort of cult-celebrity for his calm, articulate dismantling of political correctness and reactionary politics on both sides. He is particularly popular with young men, in part because of his message of self-sufficiency and self-worth, […]
The observation from Flaubert about a little discussed pivot point of Western Civilization. “Just when the gods had ceased to be, and the Christ had not yet come, there was a unique moment in history, between Cicero and Marcus Aurelius, when man stood alone.” What he is referring to is the period between the fall […]
You’re alive right now or you wouldn’t be reading this. But what proof do you have that you’re really living? Don’t overthink that question. It’s not some complicated metaphysical question. It is instead a variation on Seneca’s trenchant observation: “Often a very old man has no other proof of his long life than his age.” Meaning, […]