August 31st Readings from The Daily Stoic - Consider Your Failings Too

"Whenever you take offense at someone's wrongdoing, immediately turn to your own similar failings, such as seeing money as good, or pleasure, or a little fame - whatever form it takes. By thinking on this, you'll quickly forget your anger, considering also what compels them - for what else could they do? Or, if you are able, remove their compulsion."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 10.30

August 30th Reading from The Daily Stoic - When You Feel Lazy

"Anything that must yet be done, virtue can do with courage and promptness. For anyone would call it a sign of foolishness for one to undertake a task with a lazy and begrudging spirit, or to push the body in one direction and the mind in another, to be torn apart by wildly divergent impulses."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 31.b-32

August 29th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Want Nothing = Have Everything

"No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power to now want what they don't have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 123.3

August 28th Reading from The Daily Stoic - The Opulent Stoic

"The founder of the universe, who assigned to us the laws of life, provided that we should live well, but not in luxury. Everything needed for our well-being is right before us, whereas what luxury requires is gathered by many miseries and anxieties. Let us see this gift of nature and count it among the greatest things."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 119.15b

August 27th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Laugh, or Cry?

"Heraclitus would shed tears whenever he went out in public - Democritus laughed. One saw the whole as a parade of miseries, the other of follies. And so, we should take a lighter view of things and bear them with an easy spirit, for it is more human to laugh at life than to lament it."

~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 15.2

August 26th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Seeking Out Shipwrecks

"I was shipwrecked before I even boarded . . . the journey showed me this - how much of what we have is unnecessary, and how easily we can decide to rid ourselves of these things whenever it's necessary, never suffering the loss."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 87.1

August 25th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Respect The Past, But Be Open To The Future

"Won't you be walking in your predecessors' footsteps? I surely will use the older path, but if I find a shorter and smoother way, I'll blaze a trail there. The ones who pioneered these paths aren't our masters, but our guides. Truth stands open to everyone, it hasn't been monopolized."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 33.11

August 24th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Pillage From All Sources

"I'll never be ashamed to quote a bad writer with a good saying."

~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 11.8

August 23rd Reading from The Daily Stoic - It's In Your Self-Interest

"Therefore, explain why a wise person shouldn't get drunk - not with words, but by the facts of its ugliness and offensiveness. It's most easy to prove that so-called pleasures, when they go beyond proper measure, are but punishments."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 83.27

August 22nd Reading from The Daily Stoic - Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

"It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth, for then you won't tire and give up, if you aren't busying yourself with lesser things beyond what should be allowed."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.32b

August 21st Reading from The Daily Stoic - Don't Be Miserable In Advance

"It is 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

August 20th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Where It Counts

"Inwardly, we ought to be different in every respect, but outward dress should blend in with the crowd."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 5.2

My note: This is a bigger debate in Stoicism than one might think. Even in Seneca's day there were people adopting outlandish clothing as a "uniform" - threadbare togas to show unconcern about worldly things, etc. A couple of generations before him, Cato the Younger was a Stoic and went about in a toga of unbleached wool. without a tunic under it, for similar reasons. I have seen someone on a modern message board wonder whether modern Stoics should adopt togas or something. Seneca's point here is that while Stoicism changes the way we are in our minds, there is no need for outward display. Just wear your normal clothes.

August 19th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Corralling the Unnecessary

"It is said that if you would have better peace of mind, busy yourself with little. But wouldn't a better saying be do what you must and as required of a rational being created for public life? For this brings not only the peace of mind of doing few things, but the greater peace of doing them well. Since the vast majority of our words and deeds are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquility. As a result, we shouldn't forget each moment to ask, is this one of the unnecessary things? But we must corral not only unnecessary actions but unnecessary thoughts, too, so needless acts don't tag along after them."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.24

August 18th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Only Fools Rush In

"A good person is invincible, for they don't rush into contests in which they aren't the strongest. If you want their property, take it - take also their staff, profession, and body. But you will never compel what they set out for, nor trap them in what they would avoid. For the only contest the good person enters is that of their own reasoned choice. How can such a person not be invincible?"

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.6.5-7

August 17th Reading from The Daily Stoic - The Buck Stops Here

"For nothing outside my reasoned choice can hinder or harm it - my reasoned choice alone can do this to itself. If we would lean this way whenever we fail, and would blame only ourselves and remember that nothing but opinion is the cause of a troubled mind and uneasiness, then by God, I swear we would be making progress."

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.19.2-3

August 16th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Anything Can Be An Advantage

"Just as the nature of rational things has given to each person their rational powers, so it also gives us this power - just as nature turns to its own purpose any obstacle or opposition, sets its place in the destined order, and co-opts it, so every rational person can convert any obstacle into the raw material for their own purpose."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.35

August 15th Reading from The Daily Stoic - The Supreme Court of Your Mind

"This can be swiftly taught in very few words: virtue is the only good; there is no certain good without virtue; and virtue resides in our nobler part, which is our rational one. And what can this virtue be? True and steadfast judgment. For from this will arise every mental impulse, and by it every appearance that spurs our impulses will be rendered clear."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 71.32

August 14th Reading from The Daily Stoic - This Isn't For Fun. It's For Life.

"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 our course as we vacillate in uncertainties. Without it, no one can live without fear or free from care. Countless things happen every hour that require advice, and such advice is to be sought out in philosophy."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 16.3

August 13th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Take Charge and End Your Troubles

"You've endured countless troubles - all from not letting your ruling reason do the work it was made for - enough already!"

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.26

August 12th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Make The Words Your Own

"Many words have been spoken by Plato, Zeno, Chrysippus, Posidonius, and by a whole host of equally excellent Stoics. I'll tell you how people can prove their words to be their own - by putting into practice what they've been preaching."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 108.35; 38

August 11th Reading from The Daily Stoic - No Time For Theories, Just Results

"When the problem arose for us whether habit or theory was better for getting virtue - if by theory is meant what teaches us correct conduct, and by habit we mean being accustomed to act according to this theory - Musonius thought habit to be more effective."

~ Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 5.17.31-32, 5.19.1-2

August 10th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Perfection is the Enemy of Action

"We don't abandon our pursuits because we despair of ever perfecting them."

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.2.37b

August 9th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Stick With Just the Facts

"Don't tell yourself anything more than what the initial impressions report. It's been reported to you that someone is speaking badly about you. This is the report - the report wasn't that you've been harmed. I see that my son is sick - but not that his life is at risk. So always stay within your first impressions, and don't add to them in your head - this way nothing can happen to you."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.49

August 8th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Start With Where The World Is

"Do now what nature demands of you. Get right to it if that's in your power. Don't look around to see if people will know about it. Don't await the perfection of Plato's Republic, but be satisfied with even the smallest step forward and regard the outcome as a small thing."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.29.(4)

August 7th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Pragmatic and Principled

"Wherever a person can live, there one can also live well; life is also in the demands of court, there too one can live well."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.16

August 6th Reading from The Daily Stoic - There Is Always More Room To Maneuver Than You Think

"Apply yourself to thinking through difficulties - hard times can be softened, tight squeezes widened, and heavy loads made lighter for those who can apply the right pressure."

~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 10.4b

August 5th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Silence Is Strength

"Silence is a lesson learned from the many sufferings of life."

~ Seneca, Thyestes, 309

August 4th Reading from The Daily Stoic - No Blame, Just Focus

"You must stop blaming God, and not blame any person. You must completely control your desire and shift your avoidance to what lies within your reasoned choice. You must no longer feel anger, resentment, envy, or regret."

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.22.13

August 3rd Reading from The Daily Stoic - The Good Life Is Anywhere

"At this moment you aren't on a journey, but wandering about, being driven from place to place, even though what you seek - to live well - is found in all places. Is there any place more full of confusion than the Forum? Yet even there you can live at peace, if needed."

~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 28.5b-6a

August 2nd Reading from The Daily Stoic - We Can Work Any Way

"Indeed, how could exile be an obstacle to a person's own cultivation, or to attaining virtue when no one has ever been cut off from learning or practicing what is needed by exile?"

~ Musonius Rufus, 9.37.30-31, 9.39.1

August 1st Reading from The Daily Stoic - Don't Go Expecting Perfection

"That cucumber is bitter, so toss it out! There are thorns on the path, then keep away! Enough said. Why ponder the existence of a nuisance? Such thinking would make you a laughing-stock to the true student of Nature, just as a carpenter or a cobbler would laugh if you pointed out the sawdust and chips on the floors of their shops. Yet while those shopkeepers have dustbins for disposal, Nature has no need of them."

~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.50