The Stoic Magazine Library

The goal is to stop being pulled—to stop reacting automatically to everything that happens around us and to stop dancing to impulses, emotions, and external events as if we have no say in the matter.

Everyone faces challenges and a good life is within the grasp of all of us.

What if we could eliminate most worries instead of accepting them? What if we could neutralize the causes instead of treating the symptoms?

What is the “self” that we’re supposed to impose and exercise mastery over? Another lower part or a whole panoply of paris of ourself, perhaps? And who or what is the master in that case? The ruling part? The faculty of choice?

Every sacrifice is automatically virtuous simply because it asks something of us.

We train because situations will test us before we feel fully prepared for them. In that sense, difficult workplaces can become unexpected training grounds.

The Stoic life is not built upon dramatic displays of sacrifice. It is built upon countless unseen sacrifices repeated consistently over time.

The Stoics believed if the sacrifice was virtuous, you should not expect praise for doing so.

You don’t have to sacrifice your mind, your body, or your soul to serve.

Sacrifice is not one of the canonical Stoic virtues, but sacrificing time, safety, or even your own life for a higher moral purpose flows naturally from practicing the virtues of wisdom, justice, courage and temperance.

Fulfilling our multiple roles and responsibilities, meeting the call of our duties, following through on commitments, restraining ourselves or rousing up our spirit, these all do as well. Would the word “sacrifice” be out of place in all of these cases? It strikes me that it might be one of the most apt terms we could use for them.