Musonius Rufus, Lectures 20.3

Why is it, then, that the rare and expensive pieces are sought after rather than those that are available and cheap? It is because the things that are really good and fine are not recognized, and in place of them those which only seem good are eagerly sought by the foolish. As madmen often think that black is white, so foolishness is next of kin to madness. 

 

Now we should find that the best lawgivers— and I think first of all of Lycurgus, who drove extravagance out of Sparta and substituted frugality, who preferred a life of deprivation as a means of producing courage to a life of excess, and who did away with luxury as a corrupting influence and considered the will to bear hardships the salvation of the state. 

 

Testimony to this is the endurance of the Spartan ephebes, who were made accustomed to bear hunger and thirst and cold, and even blows and other hardships. Trained in such noble and austere habits the ancient Lacedaemonians were the best of the Greeks and were so esteemed. Their very poverty they caused to be more envied than the King's wealth. 

 

From an early age, I saw an association between merit and glory, such that those who were deemed to be worthy were always rewarded with fame and luxury. It started with winning differently colored stickers, moved on to class rankings, and ended up with titles and bank accounts. 

 

Through it all, if it sparkled more and it cost more, it was surely worth more. This was true of clothing, of cars, of homes, of offices, even of the very people themselves. There may have been much public insistence that people mattered more than things, but we all really knew that the people were just another set of things, to be bought and sold based upon appearances. 

 

When we already begin with the wrong values, we will then pursue all the wrong goals, and what is in itself rather ignorant is made to look so terribly wise. It happens for one simple reason, the fact that we confuse character and circumstance. 

 

Stoic living will never be popular in that sort of climate, and so the hero to the Stoic will be thought quite the fool by the seeker of status. I am always wary of making the Spartans into saints, but I understand completely why the Stoics thought so much of their lawgiver, Lycurgus. One of his crazy ideas was that we can help people make far more of themselves by making then do with far less. 

 

I may think, for example, that I am a better man because my home is completely climate controlled, while lesser people have to put up with the heat and the cold. Actually, it only means that I am a pampered man, and I am overlooking the possibility that bearing the heat and the cold can be excellent ways to acquire some mastery over myself. 

 

The good man sees the opportunity in hardship, while the rich man sees only an obstacle. The good man will gladly surrender his own comfort for the sake of his virtue, while the rich man will gladly surrender the comfort of others for the sake of his pleasure. 

 

With my rather odd sense of humor, I imagine a world where people would look out from their cozy windows during a blizzard, only to say to themselves, “Look at that fellow, walking to work through the wind and the snow, and wearing only a tattered coat and those old shoes. I feel deeply ashamed that I’m not more like him!” 

 

None of this is about wallowing in what is unpleasant, or being heartlessly tough just to put other people down. No, it is rather the insight that human greatness is to be found in the excellence of the soul, and that the luxuries of the body are usually more of a hindrance than a help to such character.

 

If I find satisfaction in possessing trinkets and fineries I will be tempted to stop right there, forgetting that my very ability to move beyond them, to take them or leave them, is what gives me merit. 

Written in 6/2000