In ancient times, Tyrian purple was THE color to be seen in. And without it, Stoic philosophy may never have existed. That might sound bizarre, but bear with me. The specific purple we’re indebted to took the form of a reddish-purple dye and had several other names in ancient times including: Phoenician purpleImperial purpleRoyal purpleImperial dye…
Short, practical tips on following virtue today and everyday How do you practice Stoicism? Do you adopt it as your philosophy of life and use it to guide your every thought and action? Do you dip in and out of its practical exercises semi-regularly? Maybe you’ve lapsed somewhat in your commitment to live an examined life…
Using Stoicism to inform healthy living For ancient practitioners of philosophies like Stoicism, the principles they adopted weren’t a set of rough guidelines or a list of quick life hacks. Their philosophy wasn’t something they dipped in and out of or referenced only in emergencies. No, for beginner students and philosopher-kings alike, Stoicism was their way…
Musonius Rufus, A Stoic Teacher The Stoic philosopher Gaius Musonius Rufus was born between approximately 20–30 AD in Volsinii, Etruria (modern-day Bolsena in Italy). As a teacher in ancient Rome, he instructed well-known philosophers like Epictetus and Dio of Prusa. Musonius’s reputation as an educator led to him being admired by people from many different…
Stoicism as a philosophy of life often gets misunderstood due to specific misconceptions that have persisted through the ages. Here are some of the most common ones: Stoicism (upper case ‘S’) is the same thing as stoicism (lower case ‘s’).The goal of a Stoic is to be passive and unemotional, not reacting to anything that…
Here’s what we are: the most abundant and widespread species of primate. One species among millions of other species that exist on the planet called Earth. Here’s what a species is: a word that our species made up to mean a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding.…
“Well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing.” — Zeno of Citium I used to get hung up on crafting the perfect morning routine. Inspired by books like Daily Rituals and podcasters like Tim Ferriss, who asks many of his guests how they start their day, I would plan in detail the sequence…
In previous posts explaining the concept of Amor Fati and the practical application of Stoic acceptance, I have mentioned how useful it can be to create your own acceptance mantra. The purpose of an acceptance mantra is to act as a sort of trigger. It can be used as part of a simple practice to…
Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of Denver-based value investment firm IMA. He assumed his current position in 2012 having originally joined the company in 1997 before working his way up through the ranks. In addition to his day job, Vitaliy is a book author, essay writer, lover of classical music, practitioner of Stoicism, and a…
“Wanting to get out of pain is the pain; it is not the “reaction” of an “I” distinct from the pain. When you discover this, the desire to escape “merges” into the pain itself and vanishes.” When I read the above sentences recently in Alan Watts’ book The Wisdom of Insecurity, I had one of…