The Daily Stoic

“power doesn’t corrupt, it reveals.”

We’re not trying to ace tests or impress teachers. We are reading and studying to live, to be good human beings—always and forever.

Everyone had a job—a specific duty. Even people who did bad things—they were doing their job of being evil because evil is a part of life.

He was much more interested in hearing what the other person had to say than making sure he was heard or—as most of us insist upon—winning the argument.

A s the Stoics have said many times, getting angry almost never solves anything. Usually, it makes things worse. We get upset, then the other person gets upset—now everyone is upset, and the problem is no closer to getting solved.

Practice the ability of having absolutely no thoughts about something—act as if you had no idea it ever occurred. Or that you’ve never heard of it before. Let it become irrelevant or nonexistent to you. It’ll be a lot less powerful this way.

is possible to hold no opinion about a negative thing. You just need to cultivate that power instead of wielding it accidentally. Especially when having an opinion is likely to make us aggravated.

We have the power to hold no opinion about a thing and to not let it upset our state of mind—for things have no natural power to shape our judgments.

The next time you find yourself in the middle of a freakout, or moaning and groaning with flulike symptoms, or crying tears of regret, just ask: Is this actually making me feel better? Is this actually relieving any of the symptoms I wish were gone?

You cry, I’m suffering severe pain! Are you then relieved from feeling it, if you bear it in an unmanly way?