Courage is one of the four Stoic virtues. In ancient Greece, even before the Stoics made their appearance, courage was valued highly.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others. - Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 

When we desperately desire something, we are drawn towards it. We use moderation so we are not carried away by our desires.  Conversely, when we are averse to something, we try to run away from it. Courage is the resource we need so our aversions don’t control us.

Courage made the Stoics fearless and they did not run away from danger out of fear. They stood their ground.

Courage leads to heaven; fear, to death. - Seneca, On Anger, 2

Many Stoics were threatened with physical harm and even death, but they refused to retreat to safety solely out of fear.

What is the basis of Stoic courage? What makes them fearless?

We can group the sources of Stoic courage into four non-mutually exclusive categories: 

1. physical courage,
2. courage to reject what others value, 
3. courage to ignore others’ opinions, and
4. courage to face whatever may happen.

They overlap with one another, but let’s look at them seperately to understand what makes Stoics fearless.

1. Not identifying with the body 

Stoics believed that your essence is your reasoning faculty. Your body is not you. It just houses your rational mind. Here is how Epictetus describes an imaginary conversation between a Stoic and his enemy:

"I will put you in chains." 

"What did you say, man? Put me in chains? You may fetter my leg, but not even Zeus himself has the power to break my freedom of choice."

"I will throw you into prison." 

"My poor body, you mean."

"I will kill you." 

"Then it will be my poor body, not I, which will perish."
- Epictetus, Discourses, 1.1

This lack of identification of oneself with one’s body made them physically courageous. You couldn’t threaten them with physical harm or even death, because it meant nothing to them. 

Once you get rid of physical fear, no one can threaten you with physical harm. This goes a long way to have the courage of your conviction and not fear others.

2. Not valuing the externals

If you could not threaten a Stoic with physical harm, you couldn’t threaten them with other things either. Stoics did not value anything beyond their reasoning faculty. Things that others spend a life time acquiring – such as wealth, reputation, power, and possessions hold no meaning to a Stoic. If a Stoic does not have them, she doesn’t care to acquire them. If a Stoic has them, she doesn’t care if they are taken away.

For a Stoic, anything beyond the rational faculty is an external and it is a matter of indifference whether she has them or not.

It follows from this that you could not tempt the Stoics with rewards either. A Stoic would not exchange her values for any external: not for wealth, not for repuation, not for power, and not for any possession.

What can they do to us? Or for us? Things they control are of no interest to us. What we care about, they cannot control. When we think this way, no one is our master. We cannot be made to act against our will. - Epictetus, Discourses, 1.9

A Stoic does not value externals and therefore cannot be forced to act against her will by rewards and punishments. This is the second source of Stoic courage.

3. Not fearing others’ opinions

Another area where we need courage is in facing what others think of us. We are afraid of other people’s opinions and adjust our behaviour accordingly. In many cases, we compromise our integrity and virtue to accommodate other people’s opinions. If we are not courgeous enough to resist yielding to other people’s opinions, we can end up damaging our character and virtue. So the Stoic...

... pays no attention to what others consider shameful or miserable. He does not walk with the crowd. - Seneca, On the Firmness of the Wise Man, 14, 3-4

So a Stoic walks alone when his character is concerned. It is not subject to compromise, it is not subject to other people’s opinions. If others don’t approve of his values, he does not care. He is steadfast and courgeously stands his ground.

Since all that others can give (or take away from) us are externals, it is of no concern to a Stoic.

What I know, they do not approve. What they approve, I do not know. (Epicurus) - Seneca, Moral Letters, 29

Stoics believed that the time we spend on worrying about what others think is the time that we could have productively used to build our character or cultivate our virtue.

Don’t waste the rest of your life worrying about others – unless it is for some mutual benefit. The time you spend wondering what so-and-so is doing, saying, thinking, or plotting is the time that’s lost for some other task. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.4

So when we stop being afraid of what others think of us, we not only become fearless, but gain time and tranquility.

If you do not worry about what others think, say, or do, but only about whether your actions are just and godly, you will gain time and tranquillity. -- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.18

4. Not fearing the future

The final fear is our worries about what might happen in the future.

A Stoic faces the future with courage for at least two reasons. The first one is that a Stoic knows she will always have the resources to cope with whatever might happen in the future.

Do not let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.8

The second one is that Stoics know that the future is not up to them and whatever is not up to them is nothing to them.

Courage as avoiding aversions

Everyone faces desires and aversions.

As long as you control your desires and aversions, there is nothing to worry about. This is your opening statement, your case, and your proof. This is your last word and your acquittal. - Epictetus, Discourses, 2.2 

Courage is the tool we use to overcome our aversions - be it about dying, externals, other people’s opinions or aversion to what might happen in the future.

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