“For I believe a good king is from the outset and by necessity a philosopher, and the philosopher is from the outset a kingly person.” Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 8.33.32–34 For thousands of years, the Stoics have not only been leaders, but the resource other leaders have turned to for advice and guidance. George Washington quoted …
American jazz icon Miles Davis once said, “Time isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing.” Seneca once wrote that it’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it. We all envelop ourselves in various forms of escapism, hoping either to postpone our responsibilities or avoid them altogether. As …
Journaling is not just a little thing you do to pass the time, to write down your memories—though it can be—it’s a strategy that has helped brilliant, powerful and wise people become better at what they do. Oscar Wilde, Susan Sontag, W.H. Auden, Queen Victoria, John Quincy Adams, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Virginia …
The Art of Journaling: How To Start Journaling, Benefits of Journaling, and More Read More »
What is it that attracts the modern thinker to works of philosophy? Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and others: it’s almost surprising how relevant their insight remains in the modern-day. As we know, some of the most profound pieces of philosophy have come from ancient Greece and Rome, and while this book might read as though …
Memoirs Of Hadrian: Book Summary, Key Lessons and Best Quotes Read More »
With the title “Roman Emperor,” you might think life would have been easy for Marcus Aurelius, but it wasn’t. Within the first year of his reign, one of Rome’s client states, Armenia, was seized by their common enemy, the Parthians. War ensued to reclaim Armenia as Aurelius faced other difficulties in the Empire, including chronic …
The ancients believed that character is fate. That what we are taught when we are young, the lessons we absorb into our DNA, in effect, determines what kind of people we are going to be. You believe that too. Or you wouldn’t be so worried about your kids. The reason you send them to the …
Stoicism serves well as a practical system of values for confronting modern-day dilemmas. And there is perhaps no more imposing set of problems facing society today than climate change and global warming. The question is, how can a philosophy founded thousands of years ago help us respond to the climate emergency? While we can’t say …
For as long as there have been people, there have been people doing stupid things because they were angry. Moses killing the Egyptian, Xerxes lashing the river, Alexander the Great brawling and killing his best friend, Caligula declaring war against the sea, Ivan the Terrible killing his own son. Me? When I think back on …
Anger Management: 8 Strategies Backed By Two Thousand Years of Practice Read More »
“Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.” — Dante, The Divine Comedy Imagine how much easier life would be if we could learn to regard everything bad that happens to us as an act of nature. To keep our cool in …
How To Be A Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci: Book Summary, Key Lessons and Best Quotes Read More »
