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May 17th

THE STOIC IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

“Show me someone sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and

happy, exiled and happy, disgraced and happy. Show me! By God,

how much I’d like to see a Stoic. But since you can’t show me

someone that perfectly formed, at least show me someone actively

forming themselves so, inclined in this way.... Show me!”

—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.19.24–25a, 28

nstead of seeing philosophy as an end to which one aspires, see it as
something one applies. Not occasionally, but over the course of a life—
making incremental progress along the way. Sustained execution, not
shapeless epiphanies.
Epictetus loved to shake his students out of their smug satisfaction with
their own progress. He wanted to remind them—and now you—of the
constant work and serious training needed every day if we are ever to
approach that perfect form.
It’s important for us to remember in our own journey to self-
improvement: one never arrives. The sage—the perfect Stoic who behaves
perfectly in every situation—is an ideal, not an end.