The Stoic Magazine Library

We should tend to our philosophy in quiet calm moments. That’s the only way you'll be ready when chaos comes knocking.

Do we give in to despair, fear, sadness, or anger about our current predicaments, anxious about the uncertainties ahead, or being upset over the possibility that what we do doesn’t really matter? Or do we approach matters with a sort of confidence and trust that, even if we aren’t intheend successful, each good action we do possesses a meaning and value?

Temperance brings us back to ourselves, and helps us stay in harmony with who we are, even when life tries to knock us off rhythm.

Temperance isn’t about restraint for its own sake. It’s about balance, justice, and care. About asking, what is enough?--and trusting that enough is, in fact, plenty.

Remember that temperance applies to everything. Food. Work. Rest. Socialising. Even personal growth. Too little effort and you stagnate. Too much effort and you burn out.

In reining in excess, we gain a quieter form of happiness: stability, clarity, and control over ourselves.

There are four main subordinate virtues encompassed by temperance. In addition to self-control, there is also “orderliness” (eutaxia), “propriety” (kosmiotńs), and “modesty” (aidńmosunń), each of which has its own distinctive set of objects and concerns.

In his Moral Letters to Lucilius (Letter 47), Seneca says that we should treat our slaves like our equals. We don’t have slaves anymore but we have power over others— our family members, our subordinates at work, people who depend on us. Stoic justice asks us to treat them all with humility and respect.

(Justice is) something you practice–in the way you speak, in the way you decide, and in the way you see others.

Do the right thing–not because you will be rewarded, but because it is who you are when you live in accordance with nature.

Stoic justice is about making the right call–day aſter day, moment after moment–when no one’s watching and no one’s keeping score.

Stoic justice invites us to examine our reactions, to choose restraint over retaliation, and to decide whether we will carry an injury as a scar or as a lesson.