Lessons in Stoicism: What Ancient Philosophers Teach Us about How to Live

by John Sellars

The philosopher, he says, is a doctor, and the philosopher’s school is a hospital – a hospital for souls.

Whether it is used for good or bad ends depends upon the character of the person who has it.

What is involved in having an excellent character? To use a very out-of-fashion word, it means to be virtuous. In particular it means to be wise, just, courageous and moderate – the four cardinal virtues according to the Stoics.

Left to their own devices, the Stoics think that humans will naturally mature into rational, virtuous adults.

much of human unhappiness is simply due to misclassification,

No, all we have complete control over are our judgements, which is to say what we think about the things that happen to us.

if we can become masters of our own judgements – then we’ll be in complete control of our lives.

If we tie our happiness to achieving the outcome, we run the risk of being frequently disappointed,

is not that we should deny or repress our emotions; it is rather that we should try to avoid having them in the first place.

you can’t simply turn off an unwanted emotion at will, but what you can do is try to avoid letting the next one pick up momentum to the point that it becomes out of control.

If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.

Not only does he think that we ought not to see apparent misfortunes as genuinely bad; he also thinks that we ought to welcome them as things that can benefit us.

The good person, he says, treats all adversity as a training exercise.

‘everlasting misfortune does have one blessing, that it ends up by toughening those whom it constantly afflicts’.

whatever prosperity and security we have could be taken away at any moment by forces beyond our control;

It’s easy to be ‘philosophical’ when it’s not happening to us or to our loved ones, but what about when it’s our turn?