Stoicism Is Not Enough

In Marcus Aurelius’s world, wracked by violence and turmoil, this thought would have been a comfort. You may be at war and every day facing life-threatening situations, but it is ultimately up to you how you respond to those pressures. Stoicism emerged from troubled times, and the perennial conflicts of that era go some way to explaining its enduri

Stoicism is about developing the tools to deal as effectively as humanly possible with the ensuing conflicts, does not demand perfection, and does not provide specific answers: those are for fools (Epictetus’s word) who think the world is black and white, good versus evil, where it is always possible to clearly tell the good guys from the bad guys.

I would like to suggest, though, that Cato and the other Stoics found a way to retain their tranquility despite their involvement with the world around them: They internalized their goals. Their goal was not to change the world, but to do their best to bring about certain changes. Even if