The Death of Marcus Aurelius

The Death of Marcus Aurelius

Saturday, August 5, 2023

Wisdom from the Early Stoics, Zeno of Citium 62


Of mental goods, some are habits, others are dispositions, while others again are neither the one nor the other. 

The virtues are dispositions, while accomplishments or avocations are matters of habit, and activities as such or exercise of faculty neither the one nor the other. 

And in general there are some mixed goods: e.g. to be happy in one's children or in one's old age. But knowledge is a pure good. 

Again, some goods are permanent like the virtues, others transitory like joy and the exercise of walking. 

—Diogenes Laërtius, 7.98  

IMAGE: Hugo Simberg, Towards the Evening (1913) 



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