The Stoic Magazine Library

If you have been looking for a balanced, facts-based biography of Marcus Aurelius (as opposed to a romanticized and dramatized version), you have found one.

The Stoics believed joy was possible—even reliable—when it was anchored to virtue rather than circumstance.

Stoic quotes for every day of the month

We do not ask what tomorrow holds. We meet each day as it arrives, armed with the tools handed down by those who learned how to live well under pressure.

“I do what I think is right, and that’s enough.” That’s Stoicism in its purest form.

This is the form Stoic optimism takes—not blind positivity, but hopeful courage in the face of reality.

We choose to be students of Stoic wisdom because of its lessons in how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

The world around us is ordered. ... the chaos we perceive is really a chaos within ourselves.

The craziness and turbulence on this earth have been going on for many, many centuries now. There’s nothing new. The same is true for the turbulence in individual human lives. Are we really surprised?

In this extract from his new book Marcus Aurelius: Philosopher-King, William O. Stephens discusses the importance of Memoranda (Meditations) as a philosophical text.