The Practicing Stoic – by Ward Farnsworth
Date read: 4/11/20. Recommendation: 9/10.
One of the best modern overviews of Stoicism that I’ve read. Farnsworth sets out to organize the ideas of the Stoic philosophers in a logical manner with foundational principles first, followed by their practical applications. He synthesizes the most important points made by different Stoics about each subject. One thing that makes this book particularly unique and resonated with me was the fact that he sprinkles in parallel ideas from other contemporary thinkers and philosophers, like Montaigne, Samuel Johnson, and Arthur Schopenhauer.
See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.
My Notes:
Judgment:
“We react to our judgments and opinions—to our thoughts about things, not to things themselves.” WF
Event > judgment/opinion > reaction. Your job is to begin recognizing the middle step.
“Men are disturbed not by the things that happen but by their opinions about those things” Epictetus
“It is not what things are objective and in themselves, but what they are for us, in our way of looking at them, that makes us happy or the reverse.” Schopenhauer
“We can choose to have no opinion about a thing and not to be trouble by it; for things themselves have no power of their own to affect our judgments.” Marcus Aurelius
“It takes greatness of mind to judge great matters; otherwise they will seem to have defects that in truth belong to us. In the same way, certain objects that are perfectly straight will, when sunk in the water, appear to the onlooker as bent or broken off. It is not so much what you see but how you see it that matters. When it comes to perceiving reality, our minds are in a fog.” Seneca
“The work of philosophy is to take responsibility for our own thinking, and in doing so to liberate ourselves from the attachments and misjudgments that otherwise dictate our experience.” WF
Externals:
“There is only one road to happiness—let this rule be at hand morning, noon, and night: stay detached from things that are not up to you.” Epictetus
“Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and if they will not adapt to me, I adapt to them.” Montaigne
Make sure your center of gravity stays within, that way the foundation of your happiness never gets destroyed through loss or disappointment due to things beyond your control. (summarizing Schopenhauer)
Perspective:
“The long view is good for morale. If it is an affront to the ego, it is also an antidote to vanity, ambition, and greed.” WF
“Imagine the vast abyss of time, and think of the entire universe; then compare what we call a human lifetime to that immensity. You will see how tiny a thing it is that we wish for and seek to prolong.” Seneca
“We believe these affairs of ours are greater because we are small.” Seneca
Death:
For the Stoics, meditation on death is a tool to promote humility, fearlessness, moderation, and other virtues.
“Only fools are attached to their bodies by a fear of death rather than a love of life.” Montaigne
“You are mistaken if you think that only on an ocean voyage is there a very slight space between life and death. No, the distance between is just as narrow everywhere.” Seneca
“We must make it our aim to have already lived long enough.” Seneca
Desire:
“You will learn the truth by experience: the things that people value highly and try hardest to get do them no good once they have them.” Epictetus
“We go panting after things unknown and things to come, because the things that are present are never enough. It is not, in my view, that they lack what it takes to satisfy us, but rather that we hold them in an unhealthy and immoderate grip.” Montaigne
“The measure of what is necessary is what is useful.” Seneca
“Natural desires are finite; those born of false opinion have no place to stop.” Seneca
“The desires that have limits come from Nature. The ones that run away from us and never have an end are our own. Poverty in material things is easy to cure; poverty of the soul, impossible.” Montaigne
“Do you not realize that all things lose their force because of familiarity?” Seneca
“We value nothing more highly than a benefit when we are seeking it, and nothing less highly once we obtain it.” Seneca
“That man will never be happy whom the sight of a happier man will torment.” Seneca
“When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped.” Samuel Johnson
Wealth and pleasure:
“Lack of moderation is the plague of pleasure. Moderation is not the scourge of pleasure, but the seasoning of it.” Montaigne
“What it has made necessary for man, nature has not made difficult. But he desires clothing of purple steeped in rich dye, embroidered in gold, and decorated with a variety of colors and designs: it is not nature’s fault but his own that he is poor.” Seneca
“On hearing of the interesting events which have happened in the course of a man’s experience, many people will wish that similar things had happened in their lives too, completely forgetting that they should be envious rather of the mental aptitude which lent those events the significance they possess when he describes them.” Schopenhauer
What others think:
“Who does not willingly exchange health, tranquility, and life itself for reputation and glory—the most useless, worthless, and counterfeit coin that circulates among us?” Montaigne
“In all we do, almost the first thing we think about is, what will people say; and nearly half of the trouble and bothers of life may be traced to our anxiety on this score.” Schopenhauer
“Soon you will have forgotten everything; soon everything will have forgotten you.” Marcus Aurelius
“The success of the insult depends on the sensitivity and indignation of the victim.” Seneca
“Remember that you are insulted not by the person who strikes or abuses you but by your opinion that these things are insulting.” Seneca
“No one becomes a laughingstock who laughs at himself.” Seneca
“Do I deserve these things that happen to me? If I deserve them, there is no insult; it is justice. If I don’t deserve them, let the one who does the injustice blush.” Seneca
Valuation:
“This why I lost my lamp: because a thief was better than I am at staying awake. But he bought the lamp at a high price. In return he became a thief, he become untrustworthy…” Epictetus
Self-esteem is the price you pay for unethical acts.
“If you set a high value on liberty, you must set a low value on everything else.” Seneca
Emotion:
“We suffer more in conjecture than in reality…We magnify our sorrow, or we imagine it, or we get ahead of it.” Seneca
Adversity:
“It is not hardships that are desirable, but the courage by which to endure them.” Seneca
“It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay blame on himself; and one whose instruction is complete to blame neither another nor himself.” Epictetus
“My formula for greatness in a man is amor fati: the fact that a man wishes nothing to be different, either in front of him or behind him, or for all eternity.” Nietzsche
“Those who are without skill and sense as to how they should live, like sick people whose bodies can endure neither heat not cold, are elated by good fortune and depressed by adversity; and they are greatly disturbed by both.” Plutarch
“Fire tests gold, adversity brave men.” Seneca
“I judge you unfortunate because you have never been unfortunate: You have passed through life without an antagonist; no one will ever know what you can do, not even you yourself.” Seneca
“Pain is neither unbearable nor eternal if you consider its limits, and don’t add to it in your imagination.” Marcus Aurelius
“Pain takes up only as much space as we allow to it.” Montaigne
Virtue:
“Let nothing be done in your life that will cause you fear if it is discovered by your neighbor.” Epicurus
“It is a rare life that maintains its good order even in private. Everyone can play his role and act the honest man on the stage…” Montaigne
“Kindness is invincible, if it is genuine and not insincere or put on as an act.” Marcus Aurelius
Learning:
“No one can live happily or even tolerably without the study of wisdom. Wisdom, when achieved, produced a happy life.” Seneca
“Do you want to know why your running away doesn’t help? You take yourself along. Your mental burden must be put down before any place will satisfy you.” Seneca
“Associate with those who will improve you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for people learn while they teach.” Seneca
“The mind is not like a bucket that requires filling, it is like wood that needs igniting—nothing more—to produce an impulse to discovery and a longing for the truth.” Plutarch
“The last occupation of the preoccupied man is living—and there is nothing that is harder to learn.” Seneca