A rebuttal of Broicism

"The misogynist appropriation of Stoicism is especially suspect since the Stoics held that virtue has no gender. As Zeno understood it, an ideal moral community of sages included women in that utopian society. Since the Stoics also held that there are no degrees of perfect wisdom - you either are or are not a sage - women and men are equally sages and equal models for the ideal of full virtue. Moreover, if reason, for the Stoics, is a common feature of all humans, then that also has implications for the education of girls and boys. For even if there are gender differences, so long as reason is shared and at the core of human good, then the cultivation of human good through educating reason ought to be open to all." - Nancy Sherman, Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience

Quote of the day

"I know that the Stoics have a bad reputation among the ignorant for being too callous ... they're charged with asserting that the wise man does not feel pity and does not forgive. Taken by itself, that assertion is invidious, for it implies that the Stoics leave human error no hope, but instead refer all shortcomings directly to punishment. ... But no philosophical school is kinder and gentler, nor more loving of humankind and more attentive to our common good, to the degree that its very purpose is to be useful, to bring assistance, and consider the interests not only of its own members but of all people, individually and collectively." - Seneca

Via How to Do the Right Thing: An Ancient Guide to Treating People Fairly by Robert Kaster

Quote of the day

"The virtues that Machiavelli scorned made for orderly and peaceful societies; those that he admired (and, like Nietzsche, because he lacked them) made for strong and warlike states, and for dictators capable of murdering by the million to enforce conformity, and of incarnadining a planet to extend their rule. He confused the good of the ruler with the good of the nation; he thought too much of the preservation, seldom of the obligations, never of the corruption, of power." - Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers from Ptahotep to Sartre

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"Seneca's cautionary lesson is that the psychologically and morally weak bite back at the slightest provocation. Narcissistic injuries, status damages, a sense of being down-ranked or bested in competition all fuel the payback. The point resonates in the current political moment. Over and over again, we have seen President Donald Trump's vindictive payback in response to narcissistic injuries. The Stoic moral teaching is that the injuries are attached to diseased values. They are injuries we ought not to be suffering if we were valuing the right goods. They are morally flawed responses, in Trump's case, profoundly dangerous, flawed responses that imperil a democracy." - Nancy Sherman, Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience 

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"Bad men who prosper are unbearable." - Euripides, Chrysippus

Via Since You're Mortal ...: Life Lessons from the Lost Greek Plays by James Romm

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"The payment for having done a virtuous deed is that you have done it." - Seneca

Via How to Give: An Ancient Guide to Giving and Receiving by James Romm 

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"Everyone helps themselves when they help another ... because the reward of all virtues is in the virtues themselves." - Seneca, "Epistle 81"

Via How to Give: An Ancient Guide to Giving and Receiving by James Romm

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"Here's the mark of great and good hearts: To seek good deeds for their own sake, not for the profits that flow from them, and to look for good people even after meeting bad ones." - Seneca

Via How to Give: Ancient Guide to Giving and Receiving by James Romm

Quote of the day

"Wherever I go, I will be fine, because I was already fine here - not on account of the place but as a result of my principles, and I am going to take them with me. No one can take them away from me; they are my only possessions, irremovable ones that are enough for me wherever I am and whatever I do." - Epictetus

Via How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life by A. A. Long

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"If you ever find yourself looking for outside approval in order to curry favor, you can be sure that you have lost your way." - Epictetus

Via How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life by A. A. Long

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 "[B]y making happiness conditional on circumstance, we surrender autonomy and equanimity, and put ourselves at risk of failure and disappointment." - A. A. Long, How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life

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 "[Anger] betrays the nature of humankind, since that nature urges us to love, but anger urges us to hate; human nature bids us to help others, but anger, to harm." - Seneca, "On Anger"

Via How to Keep Your Cool: An Ancient Guide to Anger Management  by James Romm

Quote of the day

"If you are a good person, you stand in the same relation to your friend as to yourself, since a friend is another self. You value your friend's existence in the same way as you value your own, or almost." - Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics

Via How to Flourish: An Ancient Guide to Living Well by Susan Suavé Meyer

Something about this passage, a sentiment expressed thousands of years ago in a place and time so different than now yet speaking to the universality of human experience is just overwhelmingly heartwarming. It brings a tear to my eye.

Quote of the day

 "You see, whoever looks upon a true friend looks, in a sense, at an image of himself." - Cicero 

Via How to be a Friend: An Ancient Guide to True Friendship by Philip Freeman

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 "[D]oing well is rare, praiseworthy, and splendid." - Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics

Via How to Flourish: An Ancient Guide to Living Well by Susan Suavé Meyer

Quote of the day

"You might describe the Nicomachean Ethics as a pagan version of the Beatitudes. Aristotle asks what makes a person happy or blessed, and he answers that a happy life is a flourishing one: a life in which we realize our full potential as rational, emotional, and social beings." - Susan Sauvé Meyer, How to Flourish: An Ancient Guide to Living Well