Category: Classics
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Your Occasional Stoic (3.3) Unsullied by Pleasures; Unscathed by Pain
3.3 A man such as this [meaning a man focused on that which he can control], if he does not postpone his attempt to place himself among the best, is in some way, a priest and minister of the gods. He can respond to the divinity within him rendering him a man unsullied by pleasures,…
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Your Occasional Stoic — Do Not Mourn An Unknown Future; Do Not Fear Death
Even if you are going to live three thousand years, or as many times ten thousand years, remember that no man loses any other life than the one which he now lives, or lives any other life than the one he now loses. The longest and shortest are then to the same. For the present…
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Your Occasional Stoic — Pity the Gossiping Neighbor
Nothing is more wretched than a man who is always out and about, running around in circles. As Pindar says, the poet says, “delving deep in the bowels of the earth” seeking by conjecture what is in the minds of his neighbors, without perceiving that it is sufficient to attend to the divinity within him.…
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Your Occasional Stoic — You May Die Today
It is possible you may die today. Regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to die, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve you in evil. But if indeed the gods do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what…
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Your Occasional Stoic — Knowledge of Self
Not observing what is in the mind of another a man has seldom been seen to be unhappy; but those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy. -Meditation 2:8 Others are unknowable, you know this. It should not sadden you. But not knowing yourself? That’s a problem. Like many of…
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Book Review: Cline’s The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction
The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction Eric H. Cline The title says it all. This introduction is focused on the history of the war itself, and the changing nature of our knowledge of it, and doesn’t spend much time on the literary aspects of the works (Iliad, et al) which have arisen around the…
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Your Occasional Stoic: Who decides your worth?
Go head, keep doing wrong to yourself, my soul; but soon you will no longer have the opportunity of honoring yourself. Every man’s life is sufficient. But yours is nearly finished, and instead of respecting yourself, you place you happiness in the souls of others. -Meditation, 2.6 As with many of the mediations (and with…
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Your Occasional Stoic — Clear the Mind, Time is Running Out
Remember how long you have put off these things. Remember how often you have received an opportunity from the gods, and not used it. You must now at last perceive of what universe you are a part, what power rules you, and that a limit of time is fixed for you, which if you do…
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Your Occasional Stoic – Cast Away Your Thirst for Knowledge
All that is from the gods is full of Providence. That which is from fortune is not separated from nature or without an interweaving and involution with the things which are ordered by Providence. From this all things flow; and there is besides necessity, and that which is for the advantage of the whole universe,…
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Review: Hamilton’s the Greek Way
The Greek Way Edith Hamilton This is a really bad book. Like, really bad. Well, perhaps bad isn’t the right word. Hopelessly dated and irrelevant might be better. Hamilton (author of the excellent introduction to Mythology) attempts to explain the unique and superior nature of ancient Greece through a review of its culture and comparison…
Milo and the Calf 