#stoicism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #stoicism, aggregated by home.social.
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"To roam in open walks, that the soul may increase and lift itself up in the free air and with much spirit; sometimes travel and a change of country will give vigor, and marriage and more liberal drink. Sometimes even to the point of drunkenness, not that it drowns us, but that it depresses us: for it washes away cares and moves the mind from below, and, as with certain diseases, so it heals sadness."
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"The mind must be indulged, and leisure must be given from time to time, which is the place of food and strength."
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"These reasonings are unconnected: "I am richer than you, therefore I am better"; "I am more eloquent than you, therefore I am better." The connection is rather this: "I am richer than you, therefore my property is greater than yours;" "I am more eloquent than you, therefore my style is better than yours." But you, after all, are neither property nor style. (44)."
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The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
— Epictetus
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"Anger, as we have said, is eager to punish; and that such a desire should exist in man’s peaceful breast is least of all according to his nature; for human life is founded on benefits and harmony and is bound together into an alliance for the common help of all, not by terror, but by love towards one another."
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"Who, then, can be more ignorant of nature than he who classes this cruel and hurtful vice as belonging to her best and most polished work?"
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"The one is ready even to sacrifice itself for the good of others, the other to plunge into peril provided it drags others with it."
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"The one loves to do good, the other to do harm; the one to help even strangers, the other to attack even its dearest friends."
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I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self
— Aristotle
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All this to say I think manliness is good in these ancient terms.
It's beneficial in that it helps us escape the cycles of self doubt and allows us to grow freely as who we really are. Manliness can be experienced in the worlds of both the spiritual and the material. We can and must take charge of our own lives to be free.
It transcends anatomy and can be held by anyone who seeks freedom to be themselves.
But it requires cultivation. One must practice knowing what is and isn't valuable knowledge. Reflecting constantly on what it means to be themselves. Questioning where the harms and hurt truly is before working to grow into being a better philosopher.
I would like to expand upon this later, but maybe manliness isn't a virtue in itself, but an emergent feature of practicing virtues.
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All this to say I think manliness is good in these ancient terms.
It's beneficial in that it helps us escape the cycles of self doubt and allows us to grow freely as who we really are. Manliness can be experienced in the worlds of both the spiritual and the material. We can and must take charge of our own lives to be free.
It transcends anatomy and can be held by anyone who seeks freedom to be themselves.
But it requires cultivation. One must practice knowing what is and isn't valuable knowledge. Reflecting constantly on what it means to be themselves. Questioning where the harms and hurt truly is before working to grow into being a better philosopher.
I would like to expand upon this later, but maybe manliness isn't a virtue in itself, but an emergent feature of practicing virtues.
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All this to say I think manliness is good in these ancient terms.
It's beneficial in that it helps us escape the cycles of self doubt and allows us to grow freely as who we really are. Manliness can be experienced in the worlds of both the spiritual and the material. We can and must take charge of our own lives to be free.
It transcends anatomy and can be held by anyone who seeks freedom to be themselves.
But it requires cultivation. One must practice knowing what is and isn't valuable knowledge. Reflecting constantly on what it means to be themselves. Questioning where the harms and hurt truly is before working to grow into being a better philosopher.
I would like to expand upon this later, but maybe manliness isn't a virtue in itself, but an emergent feature of practicing virtues.
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All this to say I think manliness is good in these ancient terms.
It's beneficial in that it helps us escape the cycles of self doubt and allows us to grow freely as who we really are. Manliness can be experienced in the worlds of both the spiritual and the material. We can and must take charge of our own lives to be free.
It transcends anatomy and can be held by anyone who seeks freedom to be themselves.
But it requires cultivation. One must practice knowing what is and isn't valuable knowledge. Reflecting constantly on what it means to be themselves. Questioning where the harms and hurt truly is before working to grow into being a better philosopher.
I would like to expand upon this later, but maybe manliness isn't a virtue in itself, but an emergent feature of practicing virtues.
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All this to say I think manliness is good in these ancient terms.
It's beneficial in that it helps us escape the cycles of self doubt and allows us to grow freely as who we really are. Manliness can be experienced in the worlds of both the spiritual and the material. We can and must take charge of our own lives to be free.
It transcends anatomy and can be held by anyone who seeks freedom to be themselves.
But it requires cultivation. One must practice knowing what is and isn't valuable knowledge. Reflecting constantly on what it means to be themselves. Questioning where the harms and hurt truly is before working to grow into being a better philosopher.
I would like to expand upon this later, but maybe manliness isn't a virtue in itself, but an emergent feature of practicing virtues.
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"Mankind is born for mutual assistance, anger for mutual ruin: the former loves society, the latter estrangement."
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"What is more affectionate to others than man? Yet what is more savage against them than anger?"
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"Let us now enquire whether anger be in accordance with nature, and whether it be useful and worth entertaining in some measure."
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"To no creature besides man has been given wisdom, foresight, industry, and reflection."
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The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
— Marcus Aurelius
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"Dumb creatures have not human feelings, but have certain impulses which resemble them: for if it were not so, if they could feel love and hate, they would likewise be capable of friendship and enmity, of disagreement and agreement. Some traces of these qualities exist even in them, though properly all of them, whether good or bad, belong to the human breast alone."
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"Dumb creatures have not human feelings, but have certain impulses which resemble them: for if it were not so, if they could feel love and hate, they would likewise be capable of friendship and enmity, of disagreement and agreement. Some traces of these qualities exist even in them, though properly all of them, whether good or bad, belong to the human breast alone."
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"Dumb creatures have not human feelings, but have certain impulses which resemble them: for if it were not so, if they could feel love and hate, they would likewise be capable of friendship and enmity, of disagreement and agreement. Some traces of these qualities exist even in them, though properly all of them, whether good or bad, belong to the human breast alone."
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"Dumb creatures have not human feelings, but have certain impulses which resemble them: for if it were not so, if they could feel love and hate, they would likewise be capable of friendship and enmity, of disagreement and agreement. Some traces of these qualities exist even in them, though properly all of them, whether good or bad, belong to the human breast alone."
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"Dumb creatures have not human feelings, but have certain impulses which resemble them: for if it were not so, if they could feel love and hate, they would likewise be capable of friendship and enmity, of disagreement and agreement. Some traces of these qualities exist even in them, though properly all of them, whether good or bad, belong to the human breast alone."
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"Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things. (5). (Enchiridion 5)"
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"Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things. (5). (Enchiridion 5)"
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"We must admit, however, that neither wild beasts nor any other creature except man is subject to anger: for, whilst anger is the foe of reason, it nevertheless does not arise in any place where reason cannot dwell. Wild beasts have impulses, fury, cruelty, combativeness: they have not anger any more than they have luxury: yet they indulge in some pleasures with less self-control than human beings."
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I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.
— Marcus Aurelius
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Every hour focus your mind attentively…on the performance of the task in hand, with dignity, human sympathy, benevolence and freedom, and leave aside all other thoughts. You will achieve this, if you perform each action as if it were your last.
— Marcus Aurelius
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The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.
— Marcus Aurelius
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Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours
— Marcus Aurelius
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Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
— Marcus Aurelius
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The Stoic Antidote to Frustration: Marcus Aurelius on How to Keep Your Mental Composure and Emotional Equanimity When People Let You Down
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“So, Jeeves!”
“Yes, sir.”
“What do you mean, Yes, sir?”
“I was endeavouring to convey my appreciation of the fact that your position is in many respects somewhat difficult, sir. But I wonder if I might call your attention to an observation of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He said: ‘Does aught befall you? It is good. It is part of the destiny of the Universe ordained for you from the beginning. All that befalls you is part of the great web.'”
I breathed a bit stertorously.
“He said that, did he?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, you can tell him from me he’s an ass.”P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) Anglo-American humorist, playwright and lyricist [Pelham Grenville Wodehouse]
The Mating Season, ch. 4 (1949)More about this quote: wist.info/wodehouse-p-g/46199/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #wodehouse #pgwodehouse #marcusaurelius #jeeves #wooster #acceptance #advice #destiny #fate #foreordainment #nature #stoicism #trouble #universe
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Or is it your reputation that’s bothering you? But look at how soon we’re all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of those applauding hands. The people who praise us; how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region it takes place. The whole earth a point in space – and most of it uninhabited.
— Marcus Aurelius
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So much going on in these two pages, it’s hard to summarize.
via @adapalmer
#history #Neoplatonism #Christianity #Stoicism #Boethius #Manichaeism #Plotinus #Augustine #Renaissance #Catholic #ThomasAquinas
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Marcus Aurelius on the Good Luck of Your Bad Luck: The Stoic Strategy for Weathering Life’s Waves and Turning Suffering into Strength
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/07/16/marcus-aurelius-luck/
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Its good to leave each day behind, like flowing water, free of sadness. Yesterday is gone and its tale told. Today new seeds are growing.
— Rumi
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Unlock the Stoic wisdom of Marcus Aurelius and learn how the Roman Emperor faced the ultimate human challenge: mortality. Whether you're new to Stoicism or a longtime practitioner, these insights offer a powerful shift in mindset for overcoming fear and embracing life's transience. Full new episode of Podmasana, out now, wherever you get your podcasts or this link.
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Ketika Kebodohan Duduk di Singgasana: Catatan tentang Kuasa yang Tak Ditopang Kebijaksanaan
Kisah Kertapati di desa Ngadirojo menggambarkan bahaya keputusan cepat tanpa kebijaksanaan. Lurah yang terburu-buru menutup sumur lama justru menyebabkan penyakit. Pelajaran dari cerita ini mengingatkan pentingnya berpikir mendalam dan melibatkan kebijaksanaan bersama dalam pengambilan keputusan demi kebaikan kolektif, bukan semata kepentingan pribadi. -
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”*…
Stoicism is having a moment. The estimable Timothy Snyder considers the events of the day in the light of Marcus Aurelius‘ thoughts– and actions…
As Donald Trump announced his whimsy war in Iran, I was reading about another imperial campaign, long ago, against an Iranian people.
In the late second century AD, the Roman Empire confronted armies that had crossed the border at the Danube River and even broached the Alps in northern Italy. Among them were the Iazyges, speakers of an Iranian language, who hailed from the Ukrainian steppe.
In Ukraine this February, I was learning about an archaeological find which reveals the interactions of the Romans and the Iazyges, which included alliance as well as enmity. The Roman war against the Iazyges allies was commanded personally by Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who spent the years between 171 and 180 AD at the front. During that time he kept a philosophical diary, probably written at night in his tent. Discovered after his death, that text, known as the Meditations, is a great work of Stoic philosophy.
I turned to the Meditations to see if I could learn anything that would help me to understand the work of Ukrainian archaeologists about the interactions between Romans and Iazyges. I found something else: perspective on the wars of today, and a sense of why, beyond his obvious incompetence in military matters, Trump had to lose his.
It was shaming to read the bombast of Trump: (”no president was willing to do what I have done tonight”) alongside the reflections of Marcus (“when things have such a plausible appearance, show them naked, see their shoddiness, strip away their own boastful account of themselves.”) Trump broadcast his arrogance to millions of people; Marcus wrote for himself.
Despite the fact he was commanding an army at the front, Marcus never mentioned the war in his Meditations. War was simply something he had to do; he had no difficulty seeing the other side as people, or understanding their motivations. He mentions the Iazyges only once in the text: to make a broader point about hubris, to suggest that it was wrong for Romans to take pride in taking a prisoner of war.
Although Marcus did not broach the subject of my interest, I could not stop reading his Meditations. The contrast with Trump’s utterances was astounding, and vertiginous. The one could spend nine years in command and write a philosophical diary in which he did not even mention the war; the other immediately leapt to praise himself for a war he would lose in weeks…
[With an focus on the “adventure in Iran,” Snyder elaborates the (painfully unflattering) comparison…]
… The American leaders had no idea of who they were or what they wanted, aside from the satisfaction of their emotional needs by the killing of others. They were unable to imagine that people on the other side might have ideas about their own interests and plans for their own behavior. The could not see the world, even in its plainest representation as geography; whereas Marcus exploited a bend in the Danube River to tactical advantage to win a battle; Trump chose to ignore the physical limit the Straits of Hormuz can place on world trade. As soon as the war began, the Iranians did the obvious: they responded to American long-range attacks with the same; and they blocked the Straits.
Because the Americans were operating without a sense of themselves, of the world, or other people, this came as a surprise. Marcus Aurelius offers this mild comment: “How absurd — and a complete stranger to the world– is the man surprised at any aspect of his experience in life!”
The Americans, strangers to the world, reacted to their feelings of surprise with fantasies of destruction. The pleasure they took in killing became a vision of annihilation. Rather than confront the errors they made about war, the Americans leapt to visions of violence in which no one would ever have to think again. Trump lost control on Easter Sunday when he tweeted: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” He then promised that he would bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age, where they belong” and said that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” In our modern legal and ethical language, this is of course genocidal language. The American bombast was followed by American surrender.
Marcus Aurelius won his war against the Iazyges. He combined victory and prudence, and for this he was and will be remembered. The defeated Iazyges returned to their previous role as Roman clients, offered thousands of cavalrymen as soldiers of Rome, and opened trade routes to the east. Marcus’s philosophical diary has been read for the better part of two millenia; so long as we are present as a literate civilization, it will be read. Despite Marcus’s certainty that we will all be forgotten, others built a victory column in his honor after his death; it still stands in Rome, more than one thousand eight hundred years later.
Another legacy of Marcus’s victory also touches the center of what we think of as Western culture. As part of the peace accord, he dispatched 5,500 Iazyges cavalrymen, taken into his service, to the north of what is now northern England, to defend the Roman border at Hadrian’s Wall. Their first commander was a man named Arthur, and it is possible that the Iazyges and some of their Iranian-speaking kin incorporated his name into stories of their own — of a lady in the lake, of a sword in a stone, of a quest for a golden cup — which, with time, became the legend of Christian chivalry. That is another story, and one worth telling.
But it is also part of the story of Marcus Aurelius, which, despite the fact that he chose not to tell it himself, or rather precisely for that reason, is instructive about our predicament today. Stoicism is a way not to be a stranger to the world; it can protect the powerful from vanity and folly. To fall into a stupor of self-absorption, as Trump has done, is to flee from reality. Few wars are worth fighting; those that are fought can only be won in the world, and not within the tortured confines of estranged minds. Trump hastens now towards our shared horizon of death, seeking honors that only posterity can accord and will not…
On what Trump could– and should– learn from Marcus Aurelius: “Of Stoicism and Stupor,” from @timothysnyder.bsky.social.
“We are the other of the other”
“Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?”
“Kindness is invincible.”
– Marcus Aurelius
(TotH to MKM)
* Marcus Aurelius
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As we barrel back to basics, we might recall that it was on this date in 1956 that Elvis Presley, working for the first time with backing vocal group the Jordanaires, recorded “Don’t Be Cruel,” which had been written by Otis Blackwell.
The single was released on July 13, 1956, backed with “Hound Dog.” Within a few weeks “Hound Dog” had risen to No. 2 on the Pop charts with sales of over one million. Soon after it was overtaken by “Don’t Be Cruel,” which took No. 1 on all three main charts; Pop, Country, and R&B. Between them, both songs remained at No. 1 on the Pop chart for a run of 11 weeks. “Don’t Be Cruel” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004, it was ranked No. 197 in Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
#culture #DonTBeCruel #ElvisPresley #history #HoundDog #Iran #Jordanaires #MarcusAurelius #moralPhilosophy #OtisBlackwell #philosophy #politics #stoicism #TimothySnyder #Trump -
Du souci de soi à la communauté : Hiéroclès et Cicéron
Chez Hierocle et Cicéron, le lien aux autres ne vient pas d’un altruisme abstrait, mais d’une extension rationnelle du souci de soi. Le cosmopolitisme stoïcien part du proche, puis élargit progressivement l’appartenance jusqu’à l’humanité entière. #Stoicism #Cosmopolitanism #Philosophy #Cicero #StoicismToday Pour Hierocle et Cicéron, la relation aux autres ne repose pas d’abord sur un sacrifice de soi au nom d’une…
https://homohortus31.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/du-souci-de-soi-a-la-communaute-hierocles-et-ciceron/
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Epictetus had one rule for happiness: stop worrying about what you can't control. Simple. Powerful. Life-changing.
#quotes #Epictetus #StoicPhilosophy #HappinessQuote #QuoteOnWorry #PeaceOfMind #Stoicism
https://quotes.thisgrandpablogs.com/quote-on-worry-epictetus/ -
We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play.
— Heraclitus
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What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
— Jane Goodall
