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From Vol. 2, Issue 2, February 2020

Stoic thoughts for every day of the month

Stoic Everyday || Editor

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1 - If you want to be a person of honor and trust, who can stop you? [Epictetus, D 2.2] 

2 - Our lives are short. We remember. Then we are remembered. [Marcus Aurelius, M 4.35] 

3 - You do good by being heard and seen, by your expressions, by your gestures, by your determination, and the very way you walk. [Seneca, T 4] 

4 - If you control your desires and aversions, there is nothing to worry about. This is your opening statement, your case, and your proof. [Epictetus, D 2.2] 

5 - Notice how change gives birth to all things. Know that nature is happiest when things change to become new things. Whatever is now carries the seed of what is to come from it. [Marcus Aurelius, M 4.36] 

6 - Some remedies benefit us by their smell alone without being touched or tasted. Similarly, virtue confers benefits even from a distance and even when hidden from our sight. [Seneca, T 4] 

7 - When you go after externals you become a slave. [Epictetus, D 2.2] 

8 - Very soon, you will be dead. Even so, you are not single-minded and peaceful. You are still afraid that others can harm you. You are not yet giving. You are not yet convinced that justice is the only wisdom. [Marcus Aurelius, M 4.37] 

9 - A wise person can make his mark even when oppressed. [Seneca, T 5] 

10 - Stop being pulled in different directions...Be one or the other fully: free or a slave, cultivated or ignorant, a fighting cock or a docile one. [Epictetus, D 2.2] 

11 - Carefully observe – what guides the actions of the wise? What do they do? What do they not do? [Marcus Aurelius, M 4.38] 

12 - We should continue to move and not become frozen by fear. [Seneca, T 5] 

13 - You don’t want to be the person who withstands many blows and then gives in. [Epictetus, D 2.2] 

14 - What others think cannot harm you. Your changing body cannot harm you. Then what can? The part of your mind that judges what harms you. Refuse to accept its judgment and everything will be all right. [Marcus Aurelius, M 4.39] 

15 - As soon as you devote yourself to philosophy, you will overcome all disgust at life. You will not wish for nightfall because you are wary of daylight. Nor will you be trouble to yourself and useless to others. You will win many friends, and people of great merit will be attracted to you.[Seneca, T 3] 

16 - To ask for some advice is like asking what name you should write when you are about to print a name.[Epictetus, D2.2] 

17- There is nothing bad in undergoing change. Nothing good either. [Marcus Aurelius, M 4.42] 

18 - If Fortune gets the upper hand and makes you powerless to act, don’t immediately turn your back to the enemy, throw away your weapons, and run away looking for a place to hide, as if there were any place where Fortune could not find you. Instead, be more careful in applying yourself to your duties. Think about it deliberately and find some way by which you can serve. [Seneca, T 4] 

19 - Remember this general principle and you will need no advice: if you go after externals you will be tossed up and down according to the will of the master. And who is your master? Anyone who has control over what you desire or what you want to avoid. [Epictetus, D 2.2] 

20 - Time is a river. It is the irresistible flow of everything that is created. You glimpse something, and it is already carried past you and a new thing comes into sight. It is swept away quickly as well. [Marcus Aurelius, M 4.43] 

21- To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself. [Seneca, T 5] 

22 - I call something good today, bad tomorrow. Why? While I know logic, I lack real life knowledge and experience. [Epictetus, D 2.3] 

23 - You are no one’s master and no one’s slave. [Marcus Aurelius, M 4.44] 

24- To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself. [Seneca, T 5] 

25 - Human beings are born to be faithful to one another; denying this is denying our humanity. [Epictetus, D 2.4] 

26 - What follows is closely linked to what happened before. Events are not random happenings with an order imposed on them, but are logically connected. [Marcus Aurelius, M 4.45] 

27 - The services of a good citizen are never useless. You do good by being heard and seen, by your expressions, by your gestures, by your determination, and the very way you walk. [Seneca, T 4] 

28 - If you were a badly cracked pot that cannot be used any more, I would throw you into the garbage. No one would bother to pick you up. But what are we to do with a human who cannot assume a basic human role? [Epictetus, D 2.4] 

29 - Not only is what exists now ordered and harmonious, but things that come into being also show the same marvel. It is not mere sequence, but astonishing harmony. [Marcus Aurelius, M 4.45] 

M=Meditations; D=Discourse; T=On Tranquility