I

April   20th

REAL    GOOD    IS  SIMPLE

“Here’s a   way to  think   about   what    the masses  regard  as  being   ‘good’  things. If  you would   first

start   by  setting your    mind    upon    things  that    are unquestionably  good—wisdom,    self-control,

justice,    courage—with    this    preconception   you’ll  no  longer  be  able    to  listen  to  the popular

refrain that    there   are too many    good    things  to  experience  in  a   lifetime.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS,   MEDITATIONS,    5.12

s it that controversial to say that there are the things that people value (and pressure you to value as
well)—and there are the things that are actually good? Or to question whether wealth and fame are all
they are cracked up to be? As Seneca observed in one of his plays:

“If only the hearts of the wealthy were opened to all!
How great the fears high fortune stirs up within them.”
For centuries, people have assumed that wealth would be a wonderful cure-all for their unhappiness
or problems. Why else would they have worked so hard for it? But when people actually acquired the
money and status they craved, they discovered it wasn’t quite what they had hoped. The same is true of so
many things we covet without really thinking.
On the other hand, the “good” that the Stoics advocate is simpler and more straightforward: wisdom,
self-control, justice, courage. No one who achieves these quiet virtues experiences buyer’s remorse.