Still you are indignant and complain, and you don’t understand that in all the evils to which you refer, there is really only one – that you are indignant and complain.Seneca, Epistles 96.1 There is so much to complain about. Even aside from big issues like pandemics, lockdowns, injustices, and inequality, there are the everyday…
Kai Whiting is a researcher and lecturer in sustainability and Stoicism based at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. With his co-author Leonidas Konstantakos, Kai wrote the excellent book Being Better: Stoicism for a World Worth Living in, which I highly recommend. It was great to be able to interview Kai recently. His answers, which…
To mark the 1900th birthday of Marcus Aurelius, Modern Stoicism ran a competition which challenged readers to write a short tribute to the great Stoic Emperor in 250 words or less. Entries had to be in the form of prose or poetry (for example, haikus or limericks) and be focused in some way on Marcus…
One of my favourite follows on Twitter is the @OptimoPrincipi account, which is run by Gareth Harney. Through his captivating posts, Gareth shares his interest in Ancient Rome to his almost 50,000 followers - the classic stories, the artifacts, the characters (including the Stoics). It was great to be able to interview Gareth recently. His…
Following the success of Stoicon 2020 as an online event, Modern Stoicism have gone on to organise further virtual conferences which have proven just as popular. The Marcus Aurelius birthday anniversary event for example had over 1,850 registered attendees making it their largest Stoicism gathering to date. Another upcoming event worth checking out is Stoicon-X…
In the interests of doing the right thing, there are times when you can’t ignore a situation. Courage and Justice are two of the four Stoic virtues, after all. They encourage action, despite fear, for the common good. Inaction may even make you complicit in wrongdoing. As Nassim Taleb puts it, "If you see fraud…
We tend to gravitate towards those who are doing well. We revere those who are currently winning - business owners, sports coaches and players, authors, actors. We fantasize about being in their position and would love to get close to them for some of that gold dust to rub off on us. Praise is heaped…
You lose your job. A relationship ends. That thing you had high hopes for falls flat. Something, anything, goes wrong. “Ugh, just my luck.” You wonder, “Why does it always rain on me?” But wait. If you look around, you’ll see plenty of other people are getting wet too. No, not just your luck -…
It’s a great feeling when you start to see progress. When you’ve been practicing a new skill and you start to get the hang of it, or when you’ve been building something piece by piece and it starts to take shape. It’s a feeling that we too often deprive ourselves of by not taking on…
If I eat this donut, my doctor won’t know. If I do two fewer pushups, my coach won’t know. If I lie to my family just this once, they won’t know. If I skip this self-directed homework, my tutor won’t know. If I slack off while working from home, my boss won’t know. No. Stop…