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Seven Stoic Tenets For Daily Practice
SUMMUM BONUM: "The Highest Good" (Virtue)
“Indeed, if you find anything in human life better than justice, truth, self-control, courage— in short, anything better than the sufficiency of your own mind, which keeps you acting according to the demands of true reason and accepting what fate gives you outside of your own power of choice— I tell you, if you can see anything better than this, turn to it heart and soul and take full advantage of this greater good you’ve found.”
“Indeed, if you find anything in human life better than justice, truth, self-control, courage— in short, anything better than the sufficiency of your own mind, which keeps you acting according to the demands of true reason and accepting what fate gives you outside of your own power of choice— I tell you, if you can see anything better than this, turn to it heart and soul and take full advantage of this greater good you’ve found.”
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Something happened that we wish had not. Which of these is easiest to change: our opinion or the event that is past?
“Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will— then your life will flow well.” (Epictetus, Enchiridion, 8)
“It is easy to praise Providence for anything that may happen if you have two qualities: a complete view of what has actually happened in each instance and a sense of gratitude. Without gratitude what is the point of seeing, and without seeing what is the object of gratitude?” (Epictetus, Discourses, 1.6.1– 2)
PREMEDITATIO MALORUM: “The Pre-meditation Of Evils”
In short: don't be caught by surprise.
“This is why we say that nothing happens to the wise person contrary to their expectations.” (Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 13.3b)
SYMPATHEIA: The View From Above
“Meditate often on the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all things in the universe. All things are mutually woven together and therefore have an affinity for each other—for one thing follows after another according to their tension of movement, their sympathetic stirrings, and the unity of all substance.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.38)
MEMENTO MORI: "Remember Thou Art Mortal"
THE OBSTACLE IS THE WAY: The Thing That Tests Us Makes Us Who We Are
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. . . . While it’s true that someone can impede our actions, they can’t impede our intentions and our attitudes, which have the power of being conditional and adaptable. For the mind adapts and converts any obstacle to its action into a means of achieving it.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations)
EGO IS THE ENEMY
“Zeno would also say that nothing is more hostile to a firm grasp on knowledge than self-deception.”
(Diogenes Laertius, Lives Of The Eminent Philosophers, 7.23)
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