Imagine Cato’s despair as Caesar proved unstoppable. Imagine Seneca and Thrasea and Epictetus as Nero spun out of control. Imagine Marcus as the triple threats of war and plague and flood converged…

It must have felt, as it has to many of us for the last eighteen months, like the world was caving in. That it was hopeless. That it was unfair. That it was only going to get worse…

But we should remember that when everything falls apart, there is something we can always depend on, and that is philosophy. William Alexander Percy, who survived combat in WWI, the death of his father and brother to suicide, and the Great Flood of 1927, would say of Stoicism that “when all is lost, it stands fast.”

That’s what Cato and Seneca and Thrasea and Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius found. In the pages of the books they loved, in their own journals, in the wisdom they had been taught, they had a dependable support system. They found something that gave them hope, gave them purpose, gave them clarity. 

As bad as things are today, it should console and inspire you that Stoicism is still here. It has survived all those tragedies and countless others for more than two thousand years (and so has humanity, it’s worth pointing out). The world only feels like it’s caving in. Stoicism stands fast. Courage. Temperance. Justice. Wisdom. These are the constants. 

Rely on them. Turn to them. Hold fast to them. 

P.S. Exciting news: my newest book, Courage is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave, was an instant New York Times bestseller! Thank you to everyone who has supported the book! And if you haven’t picked up a copy yet, you can still get signed copies and a bunch of cool bonuses over in the Daily Stoic store.