Stockdale on Stoicism 51

I was thirty-eight years old in 1962 when I first encountered the classic text that influenced my life. The book was Epictetus’ Enchiridion, and we got off to a very unpromising start together. I just couldn’t bring myself to see that what that old coot Epictetus had to say bore any relationship to my life as a twentieth century technocrat.

The book had special meaning because it was a gift from a man sixteen years my senior, whom I idolized. It was given to me by Philip Rhinelander, my professor of philosophy at Stanford University Graduate School. He had been my mentor for almost a year when, during my last tutorial session, he removed the little worn and marked-up personal volume from a high shelf in his study and said: "Here is a book that a man in your profession should own. Keep it and read it from time to time."

I was a career naval officer, an experienced fighter pilot about to return to sea duty to command a carrier-based squadron flying the navy’s latest supersonic jets. What did I have in common with a first century Stoic, who went along page after page reciting epigrams like:

Men are disturbed not by things but by the view they take of them.

Do not be concerned with things that are beyond your power.

Demand not that events should happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen and you will go on well. 

—from James B. Stockdale, Epictetus' Enchiridion: Conflict and Character 

IMAGE: Philip H. Rhinelander