— From How to Be a Stoic – Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life P.23 The Stoics used several metaphors to get their points across. One of the most incisive is that of a garden, introduced by Chrysippus, who said that the fruits of the garden represent the ethics. To get good fruits …
— Epictetus If I say what I have in mind, I shall hurt your feelings and you will leave, perhaps never to return; but if I do not say it, consider the sort of thing I shall be doing. Here you are coming to me to get some benefit, and I shall be bestowing no …
— From A Guide to the Good Life – The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by WILLIAM B. IRVINE We should remind ourselves that “this mortal life endures but a moment,” meaning that we soon will be dead.” Putting annoying incidents into their cosmic context, he thinks, will make their triviality apparent and will therefore …
From ‘The New Yorker’ Born nearly two thousand years before Darwin and Freud, Epictetus seems to have anticipated a way out of their prisons. The first line of Epictetus’ manual of ethical advice, the Enchiridion—“Some things are in our control and others not”—made me feel that a weight was being lifted off my chest. For …
— Epictetus, Discourses, 2.5.4–5 The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable …