Stoics

“If I was to sort of sum up the central maxim there, it would be, you don't control the world around you control how you control your thoughts, you control how you respond to the world around you, and so the Stoics are Focused exclusively on that stuff, and tha…”

“The Stoics themselves were remarkably well-adjusted people. They were known to those who they lived with as cheerful individuals because they weren't anti-emotion. What they were out to do is minimize negative emotions, and they weren't out to stifle negative …”

“The Stoics can be regarded as emotional preppers. So what were they doing? They were preparing for things to become dramatically worse. They were preparing to lose the things they value in life. And that can sound like a really negative approach to things, exc…”

“They were in first century AD, they were the prime logicians of their time, and they were very good at propositional logic, which is what makes modern computers and your cell phone Work.”

“They're essentially belief theorists about emotion, so they're cognitivists, which means it's not only an impulse that you give rise to, but it's a kind of belief.”

“The Stoics sort of have this idea that you put this little if clause, we're going to do it unless, or if it doesn't, and you're going to be really responsive to what the conditions are in that clause, such that if things change, you're going to change your int…”

“If you really read more deeply, the Stoics with a big S have the most sophisticated emotion theory there is in the ancient world.”

“At the root of most mistakes, both personally and sort of historically it's one of the passions, right? Envy, lust, anger, fear you know, pain you know, the, those sort of emotional states that take us out of the rational part of ourselves and into some sort o…”

“I would say at the root of most mistakes, both personally and sort of historically it's one of the passions, right? Envy, lust, anger, fear you know, pain you know, the, those sort of emotional states that take us out of the rational part of ourselves and into…”

“I think when the Stoics talk about joy, they are trying to remind you that if joy for you is only possible when things are going amazing, your joy or your happiness is therefore out of your hands.”