To be always prosperous, and to pass through life without a twinge of mental distress, is to remain ignorant of one half of nature. You are a great human being; but how am I to know it, if fortune gives you no opportunity of showing your virtue? I think you unhappy because you never have been unhappy: you have passed through your life without meeting an antagonist: no one will know your powers, not even you yourself. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Good people ought to act so as not to fear troubles and difficulties, nor to lament their hard fate, to take in good part whatever befalls them, and force it to become a blessing to them. It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of a brave person; for the mind of someone brave maintains its balance and throws its own complexion over all that takes place, because it is more powerful than any external circumstances. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca presents an argument from design to conclude that the universe is rationally and providentially arranged, just like Cleanthes, Chrysippus, and Cicero had done before him, and like Epictetus will do afterwards. Of course, from a modern scientific perspective, such argument does not hold water. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

It does good also to take walks out of doors, that our spirits may be raised and refreshed by the open air and fresh breeze. Sometimes we gain strength by driving in a carriage, by travel, by change of air, or by social meals and a more generous allowance of wine. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

We ought therefore to bring ourselves into such a state of mind that all the vices of the vulgar may not appear hateful to us, but merely ridiculous, and we should imitate Democritus rather than Heraclitus. The latter of these, whenever he appeared in public, used to weep, the former to laugh. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Zeno, the chief of our school, when he heard the news of a shipwreck, in which all his property had been lost, remarked, “Fortune bids me follow philosophy in lighter marching order.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

He who does many things often puts himself in Fortune’s power, and it is safest not to tempt her often, but always to remember her existence, and never to promise oneself anything on her security. I will set sail unless anything happens to prevent me; I shall be praetor, if nothing hinders me; my financial operations will succeed, unless anything goes wrong with them. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

We must limit the running to and fro which most people practice, rambling about houses, theaters, and marketplaces. They mind other peoples’ business, and always seem as though they themselves had something to do. If you ask them as they come out of their own door, “Whither are you going?” they will answer, “By Hercules, I do not know: but I shall see some people and do some things.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

The next point to these will be to take care that we do not labour for what is vain, or labour in vain: that is to say, neither to desire what we are not able to obtain, nor yet, having obtained our desire too late, and after much toil, to discover the folly of our wishes: in other words, that our labour may not be without result, and that the result may not be unworthy of our labour. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

For by looking forward to everything which can happen as though it would happen to us, we take the sting out of all evils, which can make no difference to those who expect it and are prepared to meet it. … Disease, captivity, disaster, conflagration, are none of them unexpected: I always knew with what disorderly company Nature had associated me. … Ought I to be surprised if the dangers which have always been circling around me at last assail me? --- Support this podcast:...

In every station of life you will find amusements, relaxations, and enjoyments; that is, provided you be willing to make light of evils rather than to hate them. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

What is the use of possessing numberless books and libraries, whose titles their owner can hardly read through in a lifetime? A student is over-whelmed by such a mass, not instructed, and it is much better to devote yourself to a few writers than to skim through many. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Let us accustom ourselves to set aside mere outward show, and to measure things by their uses, not by their ornamental trappings. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

The best amount of property to have is that which is enough to keep us from poverty, and which yet is not far removed from it. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

If you compare all the other ills from which we suffer—deaths, sicknesses, fears, regrets, endurance of pains and labors—with those miseries which our money inflicts upon us, the latter will far outweigh all the others. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

We should choose for our friends those who are, as far as possible, free from strong desires: for vices are contagious, and pass from someone to their neighbor, and injure those who touch them. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

No good is done by forcing one’s mind to engage in uncongenial work: it is vain to struggle against Nature. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

We ought first to examine our own selves, next the business which we propose to transact, next those for whose sake or in whose company we transact it. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

We ought therefore, to expand or contract ourselves according as the state of things presents itself to us, or as Fortune offers us opportunities. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

The services of a good citizen are never thrown away: he does good by being heard and seen, by his expression, his gestures, his silent determination, and his very walk. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Often a man who is very old in years has nothing beyond his age by which he can prove that he has lived a long time. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Seneca explains that there are many ways to help improve the human cosmopolis: one can be a candidate for public office, a defense lawyer, or a teacher. Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus encouraged involvement in politics, but where themselves teachers. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

How long are we to go on doing the same thing? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Hence men undertake aimless wanderings and travel along distant shores, trying to soothe that fickleness of disposition which always is dissatisfied with the present. As Lucretius says: “Thus every mortal from himself does flee.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support