“I will keep constant watch over myself and–most usefully–will put each day up for review. For this is what makes us evil–that none of us looks back upon our own lives. We reflect upon only that which we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future descend from the past.” ~...
Category: 2020
Daily Stoic: A Morning Ritual
“Ask yourself the following first thing in the morning: What am I lacking in attaining freedom from passion? What for tranquility? What am I? A mere body, estate-holder, or reputation? None of these things. What, then? A rational being. What then is demanded of me? Meditate on your actions. How did I steer away...
Daily Stoic: Reignite Your Thoughts
“Your principles can’t be extinguished unless you snuff out the thoughts that feed them, for it’s continually in your power to reignite new ones…It’s possible to start living again! See things anew as you once did–that is how to restart life!” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.2 Inspired by The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on...
Daily Stoic: Wherever You Go, There Your Choice Is
“A podium and a prison is each a place, one high and the other low, but in either place your freedom of choice can be maintained if you so wish.” ~ Epictetus, Discourses, 2.6.25 Inspired by The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living It doesn’t matter if we...
Daily Stoic: See The World Like A Poet And An Artist
“Pass through this brief patch of time in harmony with nature, and come to your final resting place gracefully, just as a ripened olive might drop, praising the earth that nourished it and grateful to the tree that gave it growth.” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.48.2 Inspired by The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on...
Daily Stoic: Reboot The Real Work
“I am your teacher and you are learning in my school. My aim is to bring you to completion, unhindered, free from compulsive behavior, unrestrained, without shame, free, flourishing, and happy, looking to God in things great and small–your aim is to learn and diligently practice all these things. Why then don’t you complete...
Daily Stoic: Never Do Anything Out of Habit
“So in the majority of other things, we address circumstances not in accordance with the right assumptions, but mostly by following wretched habit. Since all that I’ve said is the case, the person in training must seek to rise above, so as to stop seeking out pleasure and steering away from pain; to stop...
Daily Stoic: Cut the Strings That Pull Your Mind
“Understand at last that you have something in you more powerful and divine than what causes the bodily passions and pulls you like a mere puppet. What thoughts now occupy my mind? Is it not fear, suspicion, desire, or something like that?” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.19 Inspired by The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations...
Daily Stoic: Circle of Control
“We control our reasoned choice and all acts that depend on that moral will. What’s not under our control are the body and any of its parts, our possessions, parents, siblings, children, or country–anything with which we might associate.” ~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.22.10 Inspired by The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and...
Daily Stoic: The One Path To Serenity
“Keep this thought at the ready at daybreak, and through the day and night–there is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all outside of your sphere of choice, regarding nothing else as your possession, surrendering all else to God and Fortune.” ~ Epictetus, Discourses, 4.4.39 Inspired by The Daily...