The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

by Ward Farnsworth

The teachings of the Stoics are as interesting and valuable now as when first written – maybe more so, since the passage of two millennia has confirmed so much of what they said. The idiocies, miseries, and other discouragements of our era tend to seem novel or modern; hearing them described in a classical dialogue reminds us that they are nothing new. This itself was a claim of the Stoics: that the stories and problems of humanity don’t change, but just put on new masks. The same can be said for the remedies. The most productive advice anyone offers nowadays, casually or in a bestseller, often amounts to a restatement or rediscovery of something the Stoics said with more economy, intelligence, and wit long ago. The reader does better by going straight to the sages.

Stoicism got its name because Zeno of Citium (c. 334–c. 262 BC), the founder of the school, did his teaching in a public colonnade or porch (“stoa”) overlooking the Agora of Athens.

Stoicism was known on this account as the Philosophy of the Porch, as opposed to the Philosophy of the Garden (that of Epicurus), or the Philosophy of the Academy (that of Plato), or the Philosophy of the Lyceum (that of Aristotle), with each name referring to the place where the teachings of the school were imparted.

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The Stoic responds to the suffering of others like a good doctor who has seen it all before: with activity and compassion, though probably without much emotion.

The first principle of practical Stoicism is this: we don’t react to events; we react to our judgments about them, and the judgments are up to us. We will see the Stoics develop that idea in the pages to come, but this expression of it is typical: If any external thing causes you distress, it is not the thing itself that troubles you, but your own judgment about it. And this you have the power to eliminate now. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.47 The Stoic claim, in other words, is that our pleasures, griefs, desires and fears all involve three stages rather than two: not just an event and a reaction, but an event, then a judgment or opinion about it, and then a reaction (to the judgment or opinion). Our task is to notice the middle step, to understand its frequent irrationality, and to control it through the patient use of reason.

The pedestal is no part of the statue. Measure him without his stilts; let him lay aside his wealth and his titles; let him present himself in his undershirt. Is his body healthy, active, and able to perform its functions? What sort of soul does he have? Is it beautiful and capable, and fortunate enough to have all of its parts intact? Is the soul rich in what is its own or rich in what it has borrowed? Has luck had nothing to do with it? Can it face the drawing of swords without flinching? Is it indifferent between a death by the expiration of breath or the slitting of the throat? Is it calm, unflustered, and content? This is what we must see; that is how the great differences between us should be judged. Montaigne, Of the Inequality Amongst Us (1580)

That passage refers to Cato the Younger, a Stoic who had died about forty years before Seneca was born. Cato was a famously scrupulous statesman and an opponent of Julius Cæsar. When Cæsar prevailed over Pompey and his forces in the Roman civil war, Cato used a sword to take his own life rather than surrender and submit. He became part of the Stoic roster of heroes, and was sometimes cited as an example of the ideal wise man.

The Seven Wonders of the World were sites featured in ancient books telling the Hellenistic traveler where to visit and what to see, such as the Colossus of Rhodes and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

One man prays: “Help me go to bed with that woman.” You pray: “Help me not to lust after going to bed with her.” Another: “Help me be released from that!” You: “Help me not need to be released.” Another: “How shall I not lose my little son?” You: “How shall I not be afraid to lose him?” Turn your prayers this way, and see what happens. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.40

This, however, I know full well – that if all men were to carry their own private troubles to market for barter with their neighbors, there would not be a single one who, when he had looked into the troubles of other men, would not be glad to carry home again what he had brought. Herodotus, Histories 7.152

“Every soul is deprived of truth against its will” – and is likewise deprived against its will of justice, self-control, kindness, and everything of the kind. It is necessary to keep this in mind always, because it will make you milder toward everyone else. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.63

None will be found willing to distribute their money to others; but among how many others do each of us distribute our lives! Men are tight-fisted in guarding their fortunes, but extravagant when it comes to wasting time – the one thing about which it is right to be greedy. Seneca, On the Shortness of Life 3.1

The mind turns around every hindrance to its activity and converts it to further its purpose. The impediment to action becomes part of the action; the obstacle in our way becomes the way forward. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.20

Fire tests gold, misfortune brave men. Seneca, On Providence 5.10 Seneca’s way of expressing this idea – ignis aurum probat, miseria fortes viros – became well known, but the substance of it was a proverb of long standing.