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We Can’t All Be Catos…But We Can Try

Daily Stoic Emails

We’re probably not going to find ourselves in the Senate anytime soon—definitely not the Roman Senate. We’re probably not going to be put in charge of the treasury or sent to administer a distant province. We’re probably not our nation’s last hope against tyranny, probably not going to be leading an army in a civil war. We’re probably not going to have to choose between life or death, servitude under Caesar or suicide.

In Rome, they used to say, “We can’t all be Cato’s,” a statement about the almost superhuman principles that Cato the Younger seemed to live by. Well, we can’t be a Cato for a lot of reasons. We live two thousand years in the future, in a world that the tradition-minded Cato could have never imagined. We can’t be Cato because we’re not born to a prestigious family of great wealth and influence. We were not sent to the greatest schools and personally tutored by the greatest minds of antiquity. We also, thankfully, live in slightly less interesting times—as far as we know, we do not sit at the hinge of fate or a turning point in history.

So we’ll never be Cato, and maybe that’s a good thing. But you know what? We can still strive to be like Cato. We can be honest. We can treat public money—indeed anyone else’s money—as sacrosanct. We can respect the traditions that matter (the mos maiorum). We toughen ourselves up (Cato liked to walk barefoot) and we can avoid pretense (he often went bareheaded too, ignoring the trends). We can be helpful to our fellow citizens. We can be tolerant of our relatives and friends, even if they don’t live up to our standards (as Cato did with his brother). We can step in when we see bullies (a famous story has young Cato ending a childhood game when he saw the older kids picking on a scared little kid). We can refuse bribes and petty corruption (they sent Cato to work in Cyprus, hoping he’d be a bit more agreeable when he came back). We raise our own children in the four virtues (Porcia Cato, his daughter, was the steel backbone behind Brutus, who ultimately did assassinate Caesar).

We can do what’s right…because it’s right. Even if they hate us for it. Even if it doesn’t succeed. Even if it costs us. We can embody these Stoic ideas professionally and personally, whatever we do, wherever we live, whenever we live.

When the Stoics talk about “justice” this is what they mean. It wasn’t Cato’s role as a politician or the cases that he tried that made him an embodiment of this virtue. It was the little decisions he made day to day, the things he did, the way he lived. History gives us many examples of how showing up to do the right thing every day turns ordinary people into legendary heroes. That’s why Seneca urges us to choose ourselves a Cato, someone whose principles can help us navigate even the most difficult and treacherous circumstances as well as give us standards against which we can judge our behavior on a day-to-day basis.

That’s the aim of my new book Right Thing, Right Now—to help you find your Cato and try to live up to those ideals. To help you become more tolerant, more forgiving, more generous. To help you find the strength to stand by your convictions. To help you toughen yourself against the criticism and comments of others. To help you raise better children and be more giving to your friends, family, and community.

Because, sure, “We can’t all be Catos.” But that’s not what the world needs. The world needs you to live up to your ideals and your potential. And that starts with defining for yourself, through examples like Cato, Martin Luther King Jr., Florence Nightingale, Jimmy Carter, or Sojourner Truth (whose stories we tell in Right Thing, Right Now), what it means to do what’s right, what it means to be someone of character, a person of exemplary virtue.

Since we want to encourage you to preorder the book, we put together some exciting bonuses for you, like a signed, numbered page from the original manuscript (full of my handwritten edits!) and immediate access to the introduction of the book. We also have a limited number of signed, numbered first-edition copies available—plus unsigned copies cheaper than Amazon. Head here to learn more about these bonuses and how to receive them TODAY!