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September 13th

PROTECTING OUR INNER FORTRESS FROM FEAR

“No, it is events that give rise to fear—when another has power

over them or can prevent them, that person becomes able to

inspire fear. How is the fortress destroyed? Not by iron or fire, but

by judgments... here is where we must begin, and it is from this

front that we must seize the fortress and throw out the tyrants.”

—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.1.85–86; 87 a

he Stoics give us a marvelous concept: the Inner Citadel. It is this
fortress, they believed, that protects our soul. Though we might be
physically vulnerable, though we might be at the mercy of fate in many
ways, our inner domain is impenetrable. As Marcus Aurelius put it
(repeatedly, in fact), “stuff cannot touch the soul.”
But history teaches us that impenetrable fortresses can still be breached,
if betrayed from the inside. The citizens inside the walls—if they fall prey
to fear or greed or avarice—can open the gates and let the enemy in. This is
what many of us do when we lose our nerve and give in to fear.
You’ve been granted a strong fortress. Don’t betray it.