The stats get thrown around all the time. You’ll spend more than a year of your life sitting in traffic. Over 50,000 minutes brushing your teeth. 43 days waiting on hold. Over 10 years at work. It’s supposed to make you sad, despair how much life we waste. Yet there is no reason this has […]
A Stoic Response to Power
A Stoic Response, Wisdom, and More
“To recognize the malice, cunning, and hypocrisy that power produces, and the peculiar ruthlessness often shown by people from ‘good families.’” Marcus Aurelius At a young age, Marcus Aurelius is chosen to one day ‘assume the purple’—to become emperor—by Hadrian. Perhaps Hadrian saw something in him, perhaps since he lacked a son of his own, […]
Of all the loaded words in Stoic philosophy, “indifferent” is one of the most provocative. Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus each tell us that the Stoic is indifferent to external things, indifferent to wealth, indifferent to pain, indifferent to winning, indifferent to hope and dreams and everything else. You hear it enough times and it starts to sound like these people […]
There’s not much that needs to be added to this passage from Marcus Aurelius. What’s left is to try to put it into action today and tomorrow and the day after. “How to act: Never under compulsion, out of selfishness, without forethought, with misgivings. Don’t gussy up your thoughts. No surplus words or unnecessary actions. Let the spirit […]
This is a guest post by Louis Chew. He writes at constantrenewal.com, where he shares insights on how we can lead purposeful and productive lives. You can get his best articles and productivity guide when you subscribe to his weekly newsletter. *** When Zeno of Cyprus was shipwrecked and stranded on Athens, he wasn’t expecting […]