Stoic Meditations

It is a sort of revenge to spoil a man’s enjoyment of the insult he has offered to us … the success of an insult lies in the sensitiveness and rage of the victim. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Do these things befall me deservedly or undeservedly? If deservedly, it is not an insult, but a judicial sentence; if undeservedly, then he who does injustice ought to blush, not I. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

When insulted, Cato did not flare up and revenge the outrage, he did not even pardon it, but ignored it, showing more magnanimity in not acknowledging it than if he had forgiven it. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

The wise man will not admire himself even if many rich men admire him; for he knows that they differ in no respect from beggars — nay, are even more wretched than they; for beggars want but a little, whereas rich men want a great deal. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Wise persons are without anger, which is caused by the appearance of injury. And they could not be free from anger unless they were also free from injury, which they know cannot be done to them. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca argues that Cato the Younger was a sage, but a modern biography casts some doubt on that. Do sages ever walk the earth? Who would you put forth as your favorite candidate? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Bear adversity with calm and prosperity with moderation, neither yielding to the former nor trusting to the latter. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Fortune can take nothing away save what she gave. Now fortune does not give virtue; therefore she does not take it away. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Invulnerable is not that which is never struck, but that which is never wounded. In this class I will show you the wise person. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

"For Cato did not outlive freedom, nor did freedom outlive Cato." On the Stoic conception of suicide. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

“But the way by which we are asked to climb is steep and uneven.” What then? Can heights be reached by a level path? Yet they are not so sheer and precipitous as some think. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Nobody wants to do what is bad for them. So when the thief steals, he is under the wrong impression about what is and is not good for him. We should therefore pity him, and help him understand, if possible. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

A student asks Epictetus whether we should really bother to learn logic. "Would you like me to provide you with an argument?" Yes. "How would you know if my argument is a good one, if you don't understand logic?" QED. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

According to Epictetus, the root of our problems is that we don't know, or refuse to acknowledge, how the world works. As opposed as to how we wished it worked. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

If someone gets the habit of writing ungrammatically, their art is bound to be destroyed and perish. In the same way the person of honor keeps their character by honest acts and loses it by dishonest. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

What sets aside human beings from the rest of the animal world is our ability to reason and our propensity to be pro-social. So let's reason well, and be helpful to fellow humans. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Since plants do not even have the power of perception, ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are not applicable to them. Evidently, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ presume the power of using impressions. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

The island of Gyara was the exile place of choice for troublesome people during the Roman Empire. How would you handle being sent into exile? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Because we’re the only animals who not only die but are conscious of it even while it happens, we are beset by anxiety. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Because what is a human being? Part of a community – the community of gods and men, primarily, and secondarily that of the city we happen to inhabit, which is only a microcosm of the universe in toto. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support