Blog Posts

March 25, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Don’t complain; you have no reason to (Epictetus’ Discourses in Plain English 1.6)

The universe is well organized and everything is well co-ordinated. From this we can infer there must be a creator who created all this.

March 22, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Beware of rigid thinking (Epictetus’ Discourses in Plain English 1.5)

Discourses is a collection of Epictetus’ conversations with his students and visitors, as recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. Discourses forms an excellent introduction to Stoicism and, in this series, The Stoic Gym presents Epictetus’ Discourses in plain English.

March 19, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

How to know that you are making progress (Epictetus’ Discourses in Plain English 1.4)

Discourses is a collection of Epictetus’ conversations with his students and visitors, as recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. Discourses forms an excellent introduction to Stoicism and, in this series, The Stoic Gym presents Epictetus’ Discourses in plain English.

March 18, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Don’t become a treacherous animal (Epictetus Discourses in Plain English 1.3)

Discourses is a collection of Epictetus’ conversations with his students and visitors, as recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. Discourses forms an excellent introduction to Stoicism and, in this series, The Stoic Gym presents Epictetus’ Discourses in plain English.

March 15, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

You can endure anything; act your best. (Discourses in Plain English I.2.)

Discourses is a collection of Epictetus’ conversations with his students and visitors, as recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. Discourses forms an excellent introduction to Stoicism and, in this series, The Stoic Gym presents Epictetus’ Discourses in plain English.

March 10, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Understand what is in your power (Discourses in Plain English I.1.)

Discourses is a collection of Epictetus’ conversations with his students and visitors, as recorded by his student Flavius Arrian. Discourses forms an excellent introduction to Stoicism and, in this series, The Stoic Gym presents Epictetus’ Discourses in plain English.

March 8, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Training to be a philosopher

[In this discourse, Epictetus presents an idealized version of a philosopher, in the context of a student expressing an interest in Cynicism, which provided inspiration for Stoicism. Although the descriptions refer to a Cynic philosopher, it would apply equally to a Stoic philosopher.]

January 22, 2017 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

The Importance of the Dichotomy of Control

Epictetus classified things as being under our control or not under our control. His classic Enchiridion (The Good Life Handbook published by The Stoic Gym) starts with this basic idea of control.

December 13, 2016 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

You Will Not Have my Hate

You Will Not Have my Hate is a manifesto of a free man who chooses his reaction to the horror he faced on a Friday night. It is a reaction that I suspect most aspiring stoics would find hard to manifest.

November 12, 2016 - Ancient Stoicism in Plain English
Tag(s): Book Excerpts

Stoic Mockery

Stoicism grew out of Cynicism. Take Cynicism, cut out its ascetic aspects, add a few more flourishes, and voila! You have Stoicism. Diogenes the Cynic was a famous philosopher of his day.