Category: STOIC-CHRISTIAN FORGE
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WHAT MAKES A HAPPY LIFE
“Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.” — Marcus Aurelius I have read this line in a dozen different contexts and it hits differently depending on the week. There are weeks where it feels like permission — a release from the grinding pressure to accumulate, to achieve, to arrive somewhere that…
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REAL GOOD IS SIMPLE
“If you would first start by setting your mind upon things that are unquestionably good — wisdom, self-control, justice, courage — with this preconception you’ll no longer be able to listen to the popular refrain that there are too many good things to experience in a lifetime.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.12 Marcus is making…
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WASHING AWAY THE DUST OF LIFE
“Watch the stars in their courses and imagine yourself running alongside them. Think constantly on the changes of the elements into each other, for such thoughts wash away the dust of earthly life.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.47 There is a particular kind of mental weight that accumulates without you noticing. Not the big things…
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SPEND THRIFTS OF TIME
“No person would give up even an inch of their estate, and the slightest dispute with a neighbor can mean hell to pay; yet we easily let others encroach on our lives — worse, we often pave the way for those who will take it over. No person hands out their money to passersby, but…
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YOU ARE THE PROJECT
“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” — Epictetus Most of the things I worry about are outside my control. The outcomes of conversations I have already had. What someone thought of something I said. Whether a situation resolves…
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THE BUSINESS OF BUSYNESS
“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” — Henry David Thoreau This one is a Thoreau quote but it sits comfortably in Stoic territory. Marcus and Seneca both asked versions of the same question. Activity is not the same thing as purpose. Movement…
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DON’T GET LOST IN OTHER PEOPLE’S MINDS
“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.4 Marcus catches something here that most self-help content spends hundreds of pages circling without naming. We say we love ourselves. We act like we love ourselves —…
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THE MIND IS ITS OWN PLACE
“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius The title comes from Milton. In Paradise Lost, Satan speaks those words in hell — “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” Milton…
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NO HARM NO FOUL
“Do away with the opinion I am harmed, and the harm is cast away too. Do away with being harmed, and harm disappears.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.7 This is one of the harder Stoic positions to sit with honestly. On the surface it sounds like rationalization — like the philosophical equivalent of “it’s fine,…
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VERY LITTLE IS NEEDED
Very Little Is Needed “Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations I read that line for the first time years ago and filed it under things that sound true but are easy to say. Easy to say when you have what you need. Easy to say from…