The Porch and the Cross Quotes

“We are unfree, unhappy, and unsettled when we allow things outside of our control, like other people, circumstances, events, or even illnesses, determine our internal attitudes and emotions.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Even if you are not yet another Socrates, get out there and live like you want to become one!”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“People uneducated in Stoic philosophy blame others when things go wrong; those who have begun such an education blame themselves; those whose education is complete blame no one at all.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Again, the best consolation in old age is to live a noble life in accordance with our highest nature.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“In other words, he tells us that we can remain calm in our minds and loving in our hearts if we forgive one another our faults—in advance! If I may call to mind Dr. Ellis’s ABC scheme from chapter 6, inspired by the Stoics after all, the emperor would have us plant rational beliefs in our mind ahead of time, ready to spring forth to counter life’s little unfortunate events that are simply bound to happen.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“I am not a wise man, nor—to feed your malevolence!—shall I ever be. And so require not from me that I should be equal to the best, but that I should be better than the wicked. It is enough for me if every day I reduce the number of my vices, and blame my mistakes…. What I say is not spoken on my own behalf—for I am sunk in deep vice of every kind—but on behalf of the man who has actually achieved something. Lucius Annaeus Seneca”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Philosophy has the single task of discovering the truth about the divine and human worlds. The religious conscience, the sense of duty, justice and all the rest of the close-knit, interdependent “company of virtues,” never leave her side. Philosophy has taught men to worship what is divine, to love what is human, telling us that with the gods belong authority, and among human beings fellowship. Seneca, Letter 90”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Socrates did not mind being overlooked, so why should we? Also, if philosophical talk crops up in the conversations of non-philosophers, be hesitant to put your two-cents’ worth in, spewing out what you have not yet fully digested. When someone says you don’t know anything and it doesn’t bother you, then you will know you are making a good start in philosophy. Sheep don’t show how well they have eaten by vomiting up their grass before their shepherd, but by digesting their food and producing wool and milk. So too for you, don’t regurgitate philosophical propositions to non-philosophers, but show them the actions such propositions lead to in one’s life, once they are digested.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Would you be a philosopher? Then never call yourself one, and don’t talk a great deal about it among non-philosophers, but rather show your philosophy through your actions.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Does a man bathe too quickly? Don’t say he bathes badly, but that he bathes quickly. Does someone drink a great deal of wine? Don’t say he is a wino, but that he drinks a great deal of wine. You do not know the other person’s reasons for their actions, so how can you know from outward appearances whether their actions were done badly?”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“It is the mark of a small mind to be excessively focused on the concerns of the body, with excessive exercising, eating, drinking, and sexual activity. You must keep these things in their proper place, doing them in passing, but focus your attention fully on the ruling part of your soul.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Regarding your possessions, the body provides the true measure of your needs, as the nature of the foot calls for the need for shoes. To get carried away beyond true need is to walk over a cliff. Even with shoes, if you go beyond the measure of the needs of the foot, you will think you need gilded shoes and then shoes with purple embroidery. The sky is the limit once a thing moves beyond its true measure.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Strive to be a good citizen in as humble a position as may befit you and you will serve yourself, your friends, and your city best.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Don’t fear that you will receive no honors and be a nobody if you don’t obtain some high public position or get invited to fancy parties. You think lack of honors a bad thing?”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“In the same vein, if you abandon your principles in hopes of pleasing others, you have lowered your standards and lost your way. Be content, then, to be a philosopher whether you thereby please others or not. And if you would be a philosopher, appear one to yourself, and you will become capable of living a life in pursuit of wisdom.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“You are capable, however, of not failing to get what you desire, if you desire only what is within your power. A master has the power to give or take away what a slave desires. If you would be free, don’t desire things within another’s power or you’ll render yourself a slave.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Human art and effort perfects the bounty of nature. Philosophers who cultivate the land will be rewarded abundantly, not just in crops or in meat but in the growth of hard-won virtue and in the care of their families. Students of philosophy who would listen to their teachers as they jointly work the land and in periods of well-earned rest would obtain that kind of training in body and soul that Musonius so recommended.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“The beard, says Musonius, is to a man what the crest is to the rooster or the mane to a lion! It is not useless, since it protects the chin and makes clear that its wearer is a man.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Musonius declared that he would rather suffer illness than live a life of luxury; for being sick harms only the body, but luxury harms both body and soul, weakening the body and giving rise to cowardice, covetousness, injustice, and lack of self-control within the soul.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“In Discourses II.15, Epictetus gives this parable of men attending a fair: “What then is the universe,” they ask, “and who governs it? No one? Yet how can it be that, while it is impossible for a city or a household to remain even a very short time without someone to govern and care for it, nevertheless this great and beautiful structure should be kept in such orderly arrangement by sheer accident and chance? There must be, therefore, One who governs it.”3”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“Remember that you are an actor in a play that is determined by the Playwright.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living

“We train both body and soul when we discipline ourselves to withstand cold, heat, thirst, hunger, small portions of food, and hard beds, to avoid pleasure and endure pain with patience.”
― Kevin Vost, The Porch and the Cross: Ancient Stoic Wisdom for Modern Christian Living