Building upon many years of privately shared thoughts on the real benefits of Stoic Philosophy, Liam Milburn eventually published a selection of Stoic passages that had helped him to live well. They were accompanied by some of his own personal reflections. This blog hopes to continue his mission of encouraging the wisdom of Stoicism in the exercise of everyday life. All the reflections are taken from his notes, from late 1992 to early 2017.
The Death of Marcus Aurelius
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Epictetus, Golden Sayings 80
Fellow, you have come to blows at home with a slave; you have turned the household upside down, and thrown the neighborhood into confusion; and do you come to me then with airs of assumed modesty—do you sit down like a sage and criticize my explanation of the readings, and whatever idle babble you say has come into my head?
Have you come full of envy, and dejected because nothing is sent to you from home? And while the discussion is going on, do you sit brooding on nothing but how your father or your brother are disposed towards you?
"What are they saying about me there? At this moment they imagine I am making progress and saying, 'He will return perfectly omniscient!' I wish I could become omniscient before I return, but that would be very troublesome. No one sends me anything—the baths at Nicopolis are dirty; things are wretched at home and wretched here."
And then they say, "Nobody is any the better for the School!"
Who comes to the School with a sincere wish to learn, to submit his principles to correction and himself to treatment? Who, to gain a sense of his wants? Why then be surprised if you carry home from the School exactly what you bring into it?
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