The Stoic Magazine Library

Last weekend I went on a day trip to Spain. As I was looking around Granada, I came across a restaurant/sidewalk cafe with an interesting name: Memento Mori. ‘Memento mori’ or ‘remember death’ is a favourite motto of many Stoics.

Brittany Polat. Journal Like a Stoic
Published by Zeitgeist, 2022. 224 pages.
https://amzn.to/3I8cSz6

Stoicism is highly therapeutic; the therapeutic component of Stoicism is well recognized. Modern therapies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and REBT are influenced by Stoic principles. Stoicism is used to mitigate the effects of PTSD.

Stoic quotes for every day of the month

With this issue of THE STOIC, we start our fifth year of publication.

Stoic writings are full of strategies to cope with hardships, anger, fear, and other negative emotions. There are many reasons for this. For instance, many Stoics lived under tyranncial rulers. Anyone could be arbitrarily killed or exiled. There was widespread slavery and poverty.

When artists need inspiration, they turn to muses. A muse can be anyone who inspires them to do their work. It was Edie Sedgwick for Andy Warhol, Marianne Ihlen for Leonard Cohen, and Marie-Thérèse Walter for Piccasso.

Do our lives flow well? Are you fearful?

Verissimus, The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, St. Martin’s Press, 2022. https://amzn.to/3dMhvU5, By Donald Robertson & Ze Nuno Fraga

The goal of Stoicism is happiness, living the good life. Zeno, the founder of Stoicism defined it elegantly:

Our life is short. When we look back on our lives, we see that ever ything has moved too fast. We are born, get married, bring up children, acquire things, and die of old age or of other causes – all within a short span of time.

“It is never too late to become less stupid.”

Many years ago, Maureen, a friend of mine at that time, seemed to be constantly upset and ang ry about the state of the world, especially about social injustices. Wishing to cheer her up, I quoted the following verses from Dhammapada (a sort of Buddhist Enchiridion), hoping that it would calm her down and let her see things from a different perspecive: