Sublime

No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it, or believes that living through many consulships is a great blessing.

“Philosophy isn’t a parlor trick or made for show. It’s not concerned with words, but with facts. It’s not employed for some pleasure before the day is spent, or to relieve the uneasiness of our leisure. It shapes and builds up the soul, it gives order to life, guides action, shows what should and shouldn’t be done—it sits at the rudder steering ou

“To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.” —SENECA, HERCULES OETAEUS

but we should also be prepared, when reason, self-respect, and duty demand the sacrifice, to deliver it even to the flames.

je te renvoie à ces stoïciens qui, exclus des affaires publiques, ont embrassé la retraite pour cultiver l'art de vivre et donner au genre humain le code de ses droits, sans choquer en rien les puissances. Le sage ne doit point heurter les usages reçus ni attirer sur lui par l'étrangeté de sa vie les regards de tous.

Letters from a Stoic by Seneca,

“It’s ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of misery, engulfed by anxiety that the things it desires might remain its own until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest—by longing for things to come it will lose the ability to enjoy present things.” —SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 98.5b–6a

“Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES

Aristo had seemed to think that philosophy was for the wise man exclusively, for the individual’s self-actualization. His Stoicism worked well in the classroom, and raised interesting debates, but it would not work in the world. Diogenes saw Stoicism differently. It was a way of thinking—as well as a set of rules—for serving the common good, for se