February 21, 2018: Virtue

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.15: "Does the light of a lamp shine and keep its glow until its fuel is spent? Why shouldn't your truth, justice, and self control shine until you are extinguished?"

Virtue is an important concept in stoicism and is discussed in relation to many of the other aspects. The particular area of virtue I want to talk about today is self control. Self control of your emotions, of your spending, of your reaction to things that happen to you are totally in your control. It may be hard initially to demonstrate this self control or to realize that you have the power over it, but first you need to at least acknowledge that you do have the control. And once you realize this you will see that this should not be a temporary or on/off switch kind of practice and that this should be performed all the time as long as you live.

So today as you go about your day, think about self control and how you should always be practicing this. Start with just a few interactions so it is not overwhelming. It will become second nature to you and you will not have to think on a day to day basis as you start practicing other aspects of stoicism.

We will talk more about aspects of virtue in future prescriptions!