Each topic collects the passages most relevant to a Stoic theme, drawn from across the corpus. Pick a theme to read what Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and Musonius Rufus had to say about it.
The dichotomy of control: our own judgments and choices are up to us, external events are not. Includes accepting fate and providence, and the inner freedom that comes from wanting only what is ours to give.
The claim that virtue is the only real good and is sufficient for happiness - that nothing external can make a life good or bad.
Impressions and assent: that it is not events that disturb us but our opinions about them, and that we can examine an impression before believing it.
Craving, appetite, and bodily pleasure, and the discipline of restraining them. Wanting less, resisting indulgence, and mastering impulse.
Facing one's own death, the brevity of life, and the loss of others. Mourning, consolation, and the passing away of everything that exists.
Anger and irritation: their causes, their cost, and how to remain unprovoked. Includes bearing with other people's faults, insults, and offences.
Dread of what may come, worry about the future, and freedom from needless alarm. Includes courage in the face of what is feared.
Enduring pain, illness, exile, and misfortune - and treating hardship as training that exercises and reveals character.
Peace of mind and contentment: being undisturbed, at ease with one's lot, and free of inner turmoil.
Money, possessions, reputation, honour, and the desire to rise - the external goods the Stoics call indifferent. Includes poverty, obscurity, the opinions of the crowd, and political ambition.
Our obligations to other people: social roles, justice, the common good, friendship, family, and the bonds between rational beings.
The universe as an ordered whole, the divine and the logos, and living in agreement with nature.
Living in the present moment, using time well, and not squandering life on the past or the future.
Philosophy as daily training: self-examination, reflection, habit, study, and steady progress toward wisdom rather than a finished perfection.