Stoic Coffee Break

Author: Erick

  • 98 – Finding Fault

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    Erick
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    “Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?” — Marcus Aurelius

  • 97 – Only Educated Are Free

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    Erick
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    “We must not believe the many, who say that only free people ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers who say that only the educated are free.” — Epictetus

  • 96 – Caretake This Moment

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    Erick
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    “Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit the evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now. You are not some disinterested bystander. Participate. Exert yourself.” ― Epictetus

  • 95 – Imagined Anxieties

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    Erick
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    “Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.” ― Epictetus

  • 94 – Learn to Think Better

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    Erick
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    “Don’t just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized…

  • 93 – The Minds of Others

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    Erick
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    “Accustom yourself to attend carefully to what is said by another, and as much as it is possible, try to inhabit the speaker’s mind.” — Marcus Aurelius

  • 92 – Out of Tune

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    Erick
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    “When you have been compelled by circumstances to be disturbed in a manner, quickly return to yourself and do not continue out of tune longer than the compulsion lasts.” — Marcus Aurelius

  • 91 – And Yet Happy

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    Erick
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    “Sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy.” — Epictetus

  • 90 – Misfortune as Good Fortune

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    Erick
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    “Remember, too, on every occasion that leads you to vexation to apply this principle: not that this is a misfortune, but that to bear it nobly is good fortune.” — Marcus Aurelius

  • 89 – Misfortune Is No Excuse

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    Erick
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    “So does this misfortune prevent you in any way from being just, generous, sober, reasonable, careful, free from error, courteous, free, etc. – all of which together make human nature complete?” — Epictetus