For Zeno, it happened at his lowest ebb—washed up in Athens from a shipwreck. Cato and Seneca both found it through their tutors. For Porcia Cato, it came from her father and his example. Epictetus discovered it as a young slave, listening to Musonius Rufus. For Marcus Aurelius it was Epictetus, or rather, the lectures of Epictetus which made its way to him through his teacher Rusticus.

“Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire,” the great Oliver Wendell Holmes once said. So it went for these Stoics, who were touched by the power of philosophy at an early age. It inspired them, charged them, challenged them.

What Stoicism did was it gave them a compass—courage, discipline, justice, wisdom—around which they could direct their lives. They didn’t always live up to it and they certainly weren’t perfect (neither was Oliver Wendell Holmes) but they lived extraordinary lives. They did extraordinary things. They made the world a better place for having lived in it.

And you? Whatever your age, you too have been touched by this fire, or you wouldn’t be reading this right now. You have the example of Marcus and Porcia and Epictetus and Zeno and Cato before you. You also have their torch to carry forward as you do extraordinary things, as you try to make the world better for you having lived in it.

The front of the Sterling Silver ring features a custom-designed seal with four elements representing the Four Virtues: a lion (Courage), a jug of wine being poured out (Temperance), a set of scales (Justice), and an owl (Wisdom). We hand engraved “ACTA NON VERBA” on the inside, which translates to “Actions, not words.”

If you want to keep the Four Virtues close and remember that every situation presents us an opportunity to exemplify these forms of human excellence, ​head here to grab your own Four Virtues Signet Ring today​!