Meditations
Stoic practice — the Roman emperor's private notebook: perception, impermanence, duty, and the inner citadel.
Mechanisms
The soul takes the dye of its thoughts
Attention is the mechanism of character: soak the mind deliberately, or it soaks up whatever surrounds it.
Such as thy thoughts and ordinary cogitations are, such will thy mind be in time. For the soul doth as it were receive its tincture from the fancies, and imaginations. Dye it therefore and thoroughly soak it with the assiduity of these cogitations.
Why it matters
Attention is the mechanism of character: soak the mind deliberately, or it soaks up whatever surrounds it.
Use when: When choosing what to feed your attention.
See things unadorned
The Stoic stripping exercise: name things by what they physically are and the added glamour falls off.
This is the carcass of a fish; this of a bird; and this of a hog. And again more generally; This phalernum, this excellent highly commended wine, is but the bare juice of an ordinary grape. This purple robe, but sheep's hairs, dyed with the blood of a shellfish.
Why it matters
The Stoic stripping exercise: name things by what they physically are and the added glamour falls off.
Use when: When luxury or status is doing your thinking for you.
Use the impediment
The obstacle as raw material: whatever blocks the action can be made the object of the action.
So may every reasonable creature, what crosses and impediments soever it meets with in the course of this mortal life, it may use them as fit and proper objects, to the furtherance of whatsoever it intended and absolutely proposed unto itself as its natural end and happiness.
Why it matters
The obstacle as raw material: whatever blocks the action can be made the object of the action.
Use when: When a setback looks like the end of the plan.
Arguments
Nobody can hinder the right act
The inner-freedom claim: no one can stop you from doing and speaking what accords with your nature.
there is nobody that can hinder thee, but that thou mayest always both do and speak those things which are agreeable to that nature, whereof thou art a part.
Why it matters
The inner-freedom claim: no one can stop you from doing and speaking what accords with your nature.
Use when: When external pressure is the excuse.
Concepts
The inner citadel
The one retreat no circumstance can take: tranquillity as an inward order, not a place.
At what time soever thou wilt, it is in thy power to retire into thyself, and to be at rest, and free from all businesses. A man cannot any whither retire better than to his own soul; he especially who is beforehand provided of such things within, which whensoever he doth withdraw himself to look in, may presently afford unto him perfect ease and tranquillity.
Why it matters
The one retreat no circumstance can take: tranquillity as an inward order, not a place.
Use when: When escape feels like the only option.
Passages
The morning briefing
Pre-decide your response to difficult people before the day starts — the obstacle named in advance loses its ambush.
Betimes in the morning say to thyself, This day I shalt have to do with an idle curious man, with an unthankful man, a railer, a crafty, false, or an envious man; an unsociable uncharitable man.
Why it matters
Pre-decide your response to difficult people before the day starts — the obstacle named in advance loses its ambush.
Use when: When you walk into a day of difficult people.
Get up — it is your work
Duty reframed as nature: you were made for the work, not the warm bed.
In the morning when thou findest thyself unwilling to rise, consider with thyself presently, it is to go about a man's work that I am stirred up.
Why it matters
Duty reframed as nature: you were made for the work, not the warm bed.
Use when: When the snooze button is winning the argument.
The best revenge
Retaliation is assimilation — the only clean victory is refusing the opponent’s shape.
The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.
Why it matters
Retaliation is assimilation — the only clean victory is refusing the opponent’s shape.
Use when: When revenge feels righteous.