The Practicing Stoic

Schopenhauer, The Wisdom of Life (1851)

It would be foolish to regard small improvements with contempt when it is so rare to find any other kind. So if Stoics seek great things but get only part way there, the discrepancy should not cause them to be thought of as hypocrites. They aimed high, fell short, and did well

No one is worthy of the gods except he who has disdained riches. I do not forbid you to possess them, but I want to bring you to the point at which you possess them without fear. There is only one way to achieve this: by persuading yourself that you can live happily without them, and by regarding them always as about to depart

The purpose of Stoicism is to help those who study it see the truth more accurately and engage in wiser thinking and living, not to reach an end point or else be judged to have wasted their time

When speaking of actual progress in Stoicism, Seneca put students into three classes. The first and second have freedom from emotions and externals but differ in how securely they have made those gains. Then there is the third class, which seems to be as far as most can be expected to get

The wise man of the Stoics is an ideal, that is to say, a human being existing only in thought and in complete conformity with the idea of wisdom. As the idea provides a rule, so the ideal serves as an archetype for the perfect and complete determination of the copy. Thus the conduct of this wise and divine man serves us as a standard of action, with which we may compare and judge ourselves, which may help us to reform ourselves, although the perfection it demands can never be attained by us

What they try to do is understand the role of their own minds in the creation of their suffering, and then use that knowledge to reduce it

When one has studied novelty and thought about it for a sufficiently long time that it loses charm and is less likely to cause you to do foolish things, that is Stoicism, and it is to the good

Reflection cannot produce all the qualities of character and feeling that long experience does, nor can it reverse them, which may be harder still. But Stoicism should not be underestimated, either, because reflection can help with some of this.

When considering whatever one loves or hates – when considering any reaction to anything – it is instructive to ask how much of it is owed to the number of times one has encountered the subject, whether it be many or few