The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

rejection of the basics of society alienates other people, even threatens them.

I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.’”

“To philosophize is to learn how to die.”

“Ever wonder what God thinks of money? Just look at the people he gives it to.”

“Those who receive the bare theories immediately want to spew them, as an upset stomach does its food. First digest your theories and you won’t throw them up. Otherwise they will be raw, spoiled, and not nourishing.

“Whoever embraces necessity count as wise, skilled in divine matters.” —EURIPIDES

The economist Adam Smith had a similar concept, which he called the indifferent spectator. It doesn’t have to be an actual person, just someone who, like Seneca said, can stand witness to our behavior. Someone who can quietly admonish us if we are considering doing something lazy, dishonest, or selfish.

“Hold sacred your capacity for understanding. For in it is all, that our ruling principle won’t allow anything to enter that is either inconsistent with nature or with the constitution of a logical creature. It’s what demands due diligence, care for others, and obedience to God.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS

We may claw and fight and work to own things, but those things can be taken away in a second. The same goes for other things we like to think are “ours” but are equally precarious: our status, our physical health or strength, our relationships. How can these really be ours if something other than us—fate, bad luck, death, and so on—can dispossess u