[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":444},["ShallowReactive",2],{"stoic-topic-wealth-fame-and-ambition-llm_tag-all-relevance":3},{"id":4,"slug":5,"name":6,"shortDescription":7,"intro":8,"synthesis":9,"method":10,"runId":11,"passages":12},40,"wealth-fame-and-ambition","Wealth, Fame & Ambition","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.","Money, property, status, honours, office, the good opinion of the crowd: the Stoics classed all of it as indifferent - not forbidden, not shameful, simply incapable of making a life good or bad. You may pursue these things. You may not stake yourself on them.\n\nThe passages run from the practical to the caustic. Marcus deflates posthumous fame by pointing out that the people whose applause you want will shortly be dead, and that applause was only ever a clapping of tongues.","Seneca contributes the most here and is also the most awkward source for it, having been one of the wealthiest men in Rome while writing that wealth is nothing. The charge of hypocrisy is old, and he answered it: the Stoic does not refuse fortune, but holds it loosely and can watch it go.\n\nWhether that answer satisfies you is worth deciding as you read. The doctrine of preferred indifferents makes room for wanting a comfortable life; the question these passages keep circling is how you can tell, from the inside, whether you are holding something loosely or just telling yourself you are.","llm_tag",15,[13,30,45,53,61,69,77,88,95,106,120,128,139,147,155,163,171,179,187,195,203,211,219,228,236,244,252,260,268,276,284,292,300,308,316,324,332,340,348,356,364,372,380,388,396,404,412,420,428,436],{"sectionId":14,"sectionLabel":15,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":18,"relevanceNote":19,"work":20,"author":24,"readingUrl":29},946,"9.30",5,"llm_1_5","Ponder, too, the life led by others long ago, the life that will be led after you, the life being led in uncivilized races; how many do not even know your name, how many will very soon forget it and how many who praise you perhaps now will very soon blame you; and that neither memorial nor fame nor anything else at all is worth a thought.","Explicitly dismisses fame, memorial, and reputation as worthless and unworthy of thought.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},2,"The Meditations","meditations",{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},217,"Marcus Aurelius Antoninus","Marcus Aurelius","aurelius","/aurelius/meditations/9.30",{"sectionId":31,"sectionLabel":32,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":33,"relevanceNote":34,"work":35,"author":39,"readingUrl":44},2377,"7.03","This was not the vice of Alexander alone, who followed with a fortunate audacity in the footsteps of Bacchus and Hercules, but it is common to all those whose covetousness is whetted rather than appeased by good fortune.","The passage centrally contrasts covetousness and insatiable ambition for conquest with the wise man's contentment, treating external goods and power as indifferent.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},195,"On Benefits","on-benefits",{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},208,"Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger","Seneca","seneca","/seneca/on-benefits/7.03",{"sectionId":46,"sectionLabel":47,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":48,"relevanceNote":49,"work":50,"author":51,"readingUrl":52},2191,"1.13","He did not think of who offered the citizenship, but to whom they had granted it; and being altogether the slave of glory, though he knew neither its true nature or its limits, had followed in the footsteps of Hercules and Bacchus, and had not even stayed his march where they ceased; so that he glanced aside from the givers of this honour to him with whom he shared it, and fancied that the heaven to which his vanity aspired was indeed opening before him when he was made equal to Hercules.","The passage explicitly critiques Alexander's enslavement to glory and his vanity-driven hunger for honour and fame, central to the critique of ambition.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/1.13",{"sectionId":54,"sectionLabel":55,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":56,"relevanceNote":57,"work":58,"author":59,"readingUrl":60},2334,"6.03","All those treasures, which make you swell with pride, and soar above mere mortals, till you forget the weakness of your nature; all that which you lock up in iron-grated treasuries, and guard in arms, which you win from other men with their lives, and defend at the risk of your own; for which you launch fleets to dye the sea with blood, and shake the walls of cities, not knowing what arrows fortune may be preparing for you behind your back; to gain which you have so often violated all the ties of relationship, of friendship, and of colleagueship, till the whole world lies crushed between the two combatants: all these are not yours; they are a kind of deposit, which is on the point of passing into other hands: your enemies, or your heirs, who are little better, will seize upon them.","Directly and extensively critiques the pursuit and hoarding of external wealth as indifferent goods, showing their ultimate worthlessness.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/6.03",{"sectionId":62,"sectionLabel":63,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":64,"relevanceNote":65,"work":66,"author":67,"readingUrl":68},693,"5.12","In this way even the majority perceive the difference, otherwise this proverb would not in the one case offend and be disclaimed, whereas in the case of wealth and the blessings which lead to luxury or show we accept it as a witticism to fit the case.","Passage discusses wealth and luxury as false goods that the majority wrongly prizes, central to the Stoic indifferent distinction.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/5.12",{"sectionId":70,"sectionLabel":71,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":72,"relevanceNote":73,"work":74,"author":75,"readingUrl":76},895,"8.44","Those who rather run after fame in the future leave out of account that men hereafter will be just such others as these whom they find hard to bear, and those men, too, will be liable to death.","Central theme: rejects pursuit of future fame and reputation as empty.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/8.44",{"sectionId":78,"sectionLabel":79,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":80,"relevanceNote":81,"work":82,"author":86,"readingUrl":87},2567,"XXII","If my riches leave me, they will carry away with them nothing except themselves: you will be bewildered and will seem to be left without yourself if they should pass away from you: with me riches occupy a certain place, but with you they occupy the highest place of all.","The passage's central argument contrasts the Stoic and non-Stoic relationship to riches, with sentence 7 capturing the core distinction about ownership and attachment to wealth.",{"id":83,"name":84,"urlSlug":85},199,"On the Happy Life","on-the-happy-life",{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-the-happy-life/XXII",{"sectionId":89,"sectionLabel":32,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":90,"relevanceNote":91,"work":92,"author":93,"readingUrl":94},779,"A procession's vain pomp, plays on a stage, flocks, herds, sham fights, a bone thrown to puppies, a crumb into fishponds, toiling and moiling of ants carrying their loads, scurrying of startled mice, marionettes dancing to strings.","Central theme: processions, plays, flocks, sham fights all exemplify the empty vanity of external goods that Stoics call indifferent.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/7.03",{"sectionId":96,"sectionLabel":97,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":98,"relevanceNote":99,"work":100,"author":104,"readingUrl":105},2502,"3.33","The greatest hullabaloo is about money: this it is which wearies out the law-courts, sows strife between father and son, concocts poisons, and gives swords to murderers just as to soldiers: it is stained with our blood: on account of it husbands and wives wrangle all night long, crowds press round the bench of magistrates, kings rage and plunder, and overthrow communities which it has taken the labour of centuries to build, that they may seek for gold and silver in the ashes of their cities.","Passage is explicitly and centrally about money's destructive effects and how it motivates human strife and folly.",{"id":101,"name":102,"urlSlug":103},197,"On Anger","on-anger",{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-anger/3.33",{"sectionId":107,"sectionLabel":108,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":109,"relevanceNote":110,"work":111,"author":115,"readingUrl":119},2871,"1.21","“My wish has always been that those who meet me should admire me, and those who follow me should exclaim ‘O the great philosopher.’ ” Who are they by whom you wish to be admired?","Centrally about the desire for fame and admiration—external goods the Stoics treat as indifferent and potentially corrupting.",{"id":112,"name":113,"urlSlug":114},209,"Discourses","discourses",{"id":116,"name":117,"shortName":117,"urlSlug":118},218,"Epictetus","epictetus","/epictetus/discourses/1.21",{"sectionId":121,"sectionLabel":122,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":123,"relevanceNote":124,"work":125,"author":126,"readingUrl":127},2441,"2.08","Among those whom you see in the garb of peace there is no peace: for a small profit any one of them will attempt the ruin of another: no one can gain anything save by another's loss.","The passage centrally criticizes the pursuit of profit, plunder, fortune-seeking, and the competitive scramble for external gains that drives human vice.",{"id":101,"name":102,"urlSlug":103},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-anger/2.08",{"sectionId":129,"sectionLabel":130,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":131,"relevanceNote":132,"work":133,"author":137,"readingUrl":138},1124,"44","The following statements constitute a non sequitur : \"I am richer than you are, therefore I am superior to you\"; or, \"I am more eloquent than you are, therefore I am superior to you.\" But the following conclusions are better: \"I am richer than you are, therefore my property is superior to yours\"; or, \"I am more eloquent than you are, therefore my elocution is superior to yours.\" But you are neither property nor elocution.","Directly addresses wealth and eloquence as external goods; argues they do not confer superiority on the person possessing them.",{"id":134,"name":135,"urlSlug":136},1,"The Enchiridion","enchiridion",{"id":116,"name":117,"shortName":117,"urlSlug":118},"/epictetus/enchiridion/44",{"sectionId":140,"sectionLabel":141,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":142,"relevanceNote":143,"work":144,"author":145,"readingUrl":146},1071,"12.27","Continually run over in mind men who were highly indignant at some event; men who attained the greatest heights of fame or disaster or enmity or of any kind of fortune whatever.","The passage directly addresses the transience and futility of fame, disaster, fortune, and worldly ambition through vivid examples.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/12.27",{"sectionId":148,"sectionLabel":149,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":150,"relevanceNote":151,"work":152,"author":153,"readingUrl":154},2500,"3.31","He has bestowed upon me every honour that the state affords: yes, but he has added nothing to my private fortune.","The entire passage is about the insatiable desire for external goods—offices, honors, rank, fortune—and the folly of treating them as true goods.",{"id":101,"name":102,"urlSlug":103},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-anger/3.31",{"sectionId":156,"sectionLabel":157,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":158,"relevanceNote":159,"work":160,"author":161,"readingUrl":162},1105,"25","Has someone been honoured above you at a dinner-party, or in salutation, or in being called in to give advice?","The passage centrally addresses social honors, reputation, and ambition—all indifferent external goods that should not disturb us.",{"id":134,"name":135,"urlSlug":136},{"id":116,"name":117,"shortName":117,"urlSlug":118},"/epictetus/enchiridion/25",{"sectionId":164,"sectionLabel":165,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":166,"relevanceNote":167,"work":168,"author":169,"readingUrl":170},854,"8.03","For these men saw reality and its causal and material aspects, and their ruling selves were self-determined; but as for the former, how much there was to provide for, and of how many things they were the servants,","Explicitly contrasts great rulers with philosophers; rulers as servants to provision and many external things, the very definition of pursuing external goods as false goods",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/8.03",{"sectionId":172,"sectionLabel":173,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":174,"relevanceNote":175,"work":176,"author":177,"readingUrl":178},733,"6.16","Surely not; and so not even the clapping of tongues, for the applause of multitudes is a clapping of tongues.","Centrally rejects glory, applause, and multitudes' approval as things to value, establishing that external goods like fame are not worth pursuing.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/6.16",{"sectionId":180,"sectionLabel":181,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":182,"relevanceNote":183,"work":184,"author":185,"readingUrl":186},2566,"XXI","Why does he say that wealth ought to be despised and yet possess it? that life should be despised, and yet live? that health should be despised, and yet guard it with the utmost care, and wish it to be as good as possible?","The passage directly addresses whether wealth, possessions, health, and long life should be pursued or despised—these are the archetypal indifferent external goods.",{"id":83,"name":84,"urlSlug":85},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-the-happy-life/XXI",{"sectionId":188,"sectionLabel":189,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":190,"relevanceNote":191,"work":192,"author":193,"readingUrl":194},735,"6.18","They refuse to speak good of men living at the same time and in their company, yet themselves set great store on being spoken well of by those who will be born after them, whom they have never seen and never will see.","Directly and centrally about the pursuit of fame and reputation, specifically the contradiction of ignoring living peers while craving praise from future generations.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/6.18",{"sectionId":196,"sectionLabel":197,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":198,"relevanceNote":199,"work":200,"author":201,"readingUrl":202},2220,"2.27","Greed does not permit any one to be grateful; for what is given is never equal to its base desires, and the more we receive the more we covet, for avarice is much more eager when it has to deal with great accumulations of wealth, just as the power of a flame is enormously greater in proportion to the size of the conflagration from which it springs.","Central focus: greed, wealth accumulation, and insatiable ambition are explicitly analyzed as the passage's main subject.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/2.27",{"sectionId":204,"sectionLabel":205,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":206,"relevanceNote":207,"work":208,"author":209,"readingUrl":210},647,"4.19","The man in a flutter for after-fame fails to picture to himself that each of those who remember him will himself also very shortly die, then again the man who succeeded him, until the whole remembrance is extinguished as it runs along a line of men who are kindled and then put out.","Centrally about the futility and indifference of fame and posthumous remembrance as an external good.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/4.19",{"sectionId":212,"sectionLabel":213,"score":16,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":214,"relevanceNote":215,"work":216,"author":217,"readingUrl":218},2206,"2.13","O pride, the silliest fault of great good fortune! how pleasant it is to take nothing from thee! how dost thou turn all benefits into outrages! how dost thou delight in all excess! how ill all things become thee!","Directly criticizes how pride arising from external goods (fortune, benefits) corrupts and devalues them.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/2.13",{"sectionId":220,"sectionLabel":221,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":223,"relevanceNote":224,"work":225,"author":226,"readingUrl":227},2291,"4.25",4,"We ought to feel ashamed that any benefit should have a price: we pay nothing for the gods.","The passage explicitly rejects reward, payment, and advantage as motivations for action, directly addressing the Stoic view that external goods are indifferent.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/4.25",{"sectionId":229,"sectionLabel":230,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":231,"relevanceNote":232,"work":233,"author":234,"readingUrl":235},2374,"6.43","As for fame and reputation, let us regard them as matters which ought to accompany, but which ought not to direct our actions.","The passage explicitly discusses how to regard fame and reputation—as indifferent external goods that should accompany but not direct our actions.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/6.43",{"sectionId":237,"sectionLabel":238,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":239,"relevanceNote":240,"work":241,"author":242,"readingUrl":243},661,"4.33","And what after all is everlasting remembrance?","Directly addresses the vanity and transience of fame and remembrance, treating them as indifferents unworthy of effort.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/4.33",{"sectionId":245,"sectionLabel":246,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":247,"relevanceNote":248,"work":249,"author":250,"readingUrl":251},952,"9.36","Again: marble, an incrustation of earth; gold and silver, sediments; your dress, the hair of animals; the purple dye, blood, and so all the rest.","The passage systematically reduces luxuries (marble, gold, silver, purple dye) to their base material components, revealing them as indifferent externals.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/9.36",{"sectionId":253,"sectionLabel":254,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":255,"relevanceNote":256,"work":257,"author":258,"readingUrl":259},747,"6.30","In all things like a pupil of Antoninus; his energy on behalf of what was done in accord with reason, his equability everywhere, his serene expression, his sweetness, his disdain of glory, his ambition to grasp affairs.","The explicit disdain for glory and the warning against Caesar's power and purple, together with content satisfaction with little, directly address the Stoic doctrine that wealth, fame, and ambition are external indifferents.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/6.30",{"sectionId":261,"sectionLabel":262,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":263,"relevanceNote":264,"work":265,"author":266,"readingUrl":267},1030,"11.25","Socrates' message to Perdiccas to excuse a visit to his court: 'to avoid', he said, 'coming to a most unfortunate end, that is, to be treated handsomely and not to have the power to return it'.","The passage is centrally about declining a prestigious court invitation and avoiding the social trap of accepting lavish treatment from a powerful patron.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/11.25",{"sectionId":269,"sectionLabel":270,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":271,"relevanceNote":272,"work":273,"author":274,"readingUrl":275},1014,"11.13","Will any man despise me?","The passage is concerned with despising and reputation—whether others will judge one as contemptible, directly addressing external opinion.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/11.13",{"sectionId":277,"sectionLabel":278,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":279,"relevanceNote":280,"work":281,"author":282,"readingUrl":283},2297,"4.31","Why did Heaven bestow the empire of the world upon Caius Caesar, the most bloodthirsty of mankind, who was wont to order blood to be shed in his presence as freely as if he wished to drink of it?","Directly critiques the granting of imperial power (an external good and form of ambition) to the unworthy, showing that such honors are indifferent to virtue.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/4.31",{"sectionId":285,"sectionLabel":286,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":287,"relevanceNote":288,"work":289,"author":290,"readingUrl":291},2286,"4.20","Though he may do everything which a good and dutiful friend ought to do, yet, if any hope of gain be floating in his mind, he is a mere legacy-hunter, and is angling for an inheritance.","Substantial focus: the passage attacks the indifferent goods of inheritance, legacy, and material gain.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/4.20",{"sectionId":293,"sectionLabel":294,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":295,"relevanceNote":296,"work":297,"author":298,"readingUrl":299},2185,"1.07","This man has given me but little, yet more he could not afford, while what that one has given is much indeed, but he hesitated, he put it off, he grumbled when he gave it, he gave it haughtily, or he proclaimed it aloud, and did it to please others, not to please the person to whom he gave it; he offered it to his own pride, not to me.","The passage directly critiques external goods (gifts, possessions, wealth) and false values (pride, seeking praise, haughtiness), showing that the giver's intention matters more than material quantity.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/1.07",{"sectionId":301,"sectionLabel":302,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":303,"relevanceNote":304,"work":305,"author":306,"readingUrl":307},2398,"7.24","\"I would,\" said he, \"have bought a cloak if I had had the money for it.\" After this, however eager any one was to give, he gave too late; for he had already been wanting in his duty to Socrates.","Centrally about how Socrates handles material want without making harsh demands, and about duty regarding others' possessions and needs.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/7.24",{"sectionId":309,"sectionLabel":310,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":311,"relevanceNote":312,"work":313,"author":314,"readingUrl":315},904,"8.53","Do you wish to be praised by a man who curses himself three times every hour?","Directly questions the value of seeking praise and the external good opinion of others.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/8.53",{"sectionId":317,"sectionLabel":318,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":319,"relevanceNote":320,"work":321,"author":322,"readingUrl":323},2267,"4.01","Some men are found who act honourably from commercial motives, and who do not care for unrewarded virtue, though it can confer no glory if it brings any profit.","Passage explicitly rejects the pursuit of honour and profit as motivations, showing these external goods are indifferent.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/4.01",{"sectionId":325,"sectionLabel":326,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":327,"relevanceNote":328,"work":329,"author":330,"readingUrl":331},852,"8.01","Consider accordingly what it does will, and let nothing besides distract you; for experience has taught you in how many paths you have strayed and nowhere found the good life: not in logical arguments, not in riches, not in glory, not in self-indulgence, nowhere.","The passage explicitly rejects reputation, glory, and the pursuit of others' opinions as paths to the good life, addressing external indifferents.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/8.01",{"sectionId":333,"sectionLabel":334,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":335,"relevanceNote":336,"work":337,"author":338,"readingUrl":339},872,"8.21","1 Short-lived alike are praiser and the praised, he who remembers and he who is remembered.","Directly undermines the value of praise and fame by noting their ephemeral nature and the irrelevance of human opinion.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/8.21",{"sectionId":341,"sectionLabel":342,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":343,"relevanceNote":344,"work":345,"author":346,"readingUrl":347},810,"7.34","On Fame: see what their minds are like, what they avoid, what pursue.","Directly examines what people pursue regarding fame and how it is forgotten.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/7.34",{"sectionId":349,"sectionLabel":350,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":351,"relevanceNote":352,"work":353,"author":354,"readingUrl":355},2923,"3.17","“In money.” Yes, for he is superior to you in this: that he flatters, is free from shame, and is watchful.","The passage centrally examines wealth and its indifference, showing that money is an external good over which the unjust man is superior only materially, but the virtuous person is superior in what truly matters.",{"id":112,"name":113,"urlSlug":114},{"id":116,"name":117,"shortName":117,"urlSlug":118},"/epictetus/discourses/3.17",{"sectionId":357,"sectionLabel":358,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":359,"relevanceNote":360,"work":361,"author":362,"readingUrl":363},945,"9.29","The work of Philosophy is simplicity and self-respect; lead me not away to vainglory.","Explicitly rejects vainglory and external recognition, core concerns of the indifferent external goods.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/9.29",{"sectionId":365,"sectionLabel":366,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":367,"relevanceNote":368,"work":369,"author":370,"readingUrl":371},2368,"6.37","My wish is, that my country should blush at my being banished, rather than that she should mourn at my having returned.\" An exile, of which every one is more ashamed than the sufferer, is not exile at all.","Core theme: treating exile and public shame as externals of no real value; indifference to reputation and restoration",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/6.37",{"sectionId":373,"sectionLabel":374,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":375,"relevanceNote":376,"work":377,"author":378,"readingUrl":379},1102,"22","If you yearn for philosophy, prepare at once to be met with ridicule, to have many people jeer at you, and say, \"Here he is again, turned philosopher all of a sudden,\" and \"Where do you suppose he got that high brow?\" But do you not put on a high brow, and do you so hold fast to the things which to you seem best, as a man who has been assigned by God to this post; and remember that if you abide by the same principles, those who formerly used to laugh at you will later come to admire you, but if you are worsted by them, you will get the laugh on yourself twice.","Explicitly addresses reputation and the opinions of the crowd—teaching indifference to being admired or ridiculed by others.",{"id":134,"name":135,"urlSlug":136},{"id":116,"name":117,"shortName":117,"urlSlug":118},"/epictetus/enchiridion/22",{"sectionId":381,"sectionLabel":382,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":383,"relevanceNote":384,"work":385,"author":386,"readingUrl":387},989,"10.27","Reflect continually how all things came to pass in days gone by as they do to-day, and reflect that so they will hereafter; and put before your eyes whole dramas and scenes of the same kind, which you have known in your own experience or from earlier history, the whole court of Hadrian, for instance, or of Antoninus; of Philip, Alexander, and Croesus; for those were all like these; the actors only were different.","Explicitly references Hadrian, Antoninus, Philip, Alexander, and Croesus—powerful figures whose external circumstances (wealth, fame, power) ultimately amount to little; the actors and circumstances change but the pattern remains the same.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/10.27",{"sectionId":389,"sectionLabel":390,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":391,"relevanceNote":392,"work":393,"author":394,"readingUrl":395},1127,"47","When you have become adjusted to simple living in regard to your bodily wants, do not preen yourself about the accomplishment; and so likewise, if you are a water-drinker, do not on every occasion say that you are a water-drinker.","Core theme: avoiding ostentation and preening about accomplishments, not seeking external recognition or reputation.",{"id":134,"name":135,"urlSlug":136},{"id":116,"name":117,"shortName":117,"urlSlug":118},"/epictetus/enchiridion/47",{"sectionId":397,"sectionLabel":398,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":399,"relevanceNote":400,"work":401,"author":402,"readingUrl":403},2395,"7.21","Upon this our philosopher not unwillingly carried his three or four denarii home again, shaking them every now and then; afterwards, blaming himself for the pleasure which he had secretly felt at not paying his debt, and perceiving that he enjoyed having made this trifling gain, he returned to the shop, and saying, \"the man lives for you, pay him what you owe,\" he passed four denarii into the shop through the crack of the closed door, and let them fall inside, punishing himself for his unconscionable greediness that he might not form the habit of appropriating that which is not his own.","The passage directly addresses the danger of desire for small gains and inappropriate attachment to money, treating them as indifferents to be resisted.",{"id":36,"name":37,"urlSlug":38},{"id":40,"name":41,"shortName":42,"urlSlug":43},"/seneca/on-benefits/7.21",{"sectionId":405,"sectionLabel":406,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":407,"relevanceNote":408,"work":409,"author":410,"readingUrl":411},712,"5.31","How many beautiful things have been revealed, how many pleasures and pains you have looked down upon, how many ambitions ignored, to how many unkind persons you have been kind!","Sentence 3 explicitly mentions ambitions ignored and pleasures looked down upon, central to the Stoic indifference to external goods.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/5.31",{"sectionId":413,"sectionLabel":414,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":415,"relevanceNote":416,"work":417,"author":418,"readingUrl":419},2880,"1.30","I indeed imagine that you will have such thoughts as these: Why do we make so great and so many preparations for nothing?","Substantially addressed: the passage critiques the apparent grandeur of political power and status, revealing them as 'nothing' compared to genuine philosophical preparation.",{"id":112,"name":113,"urlSlug":114},{"id":116,"name":117,"shortName":117,"urlSlug":118},"/epictetus/discourses/1.30",{"sectionId":421,"sectionLabel":422,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":423,"relevanceNote":424,"work":425,"author":426,"readingUrl":427},1119,"39","So also in the case of your shoe; if once you go beyond the foot, you get first a gilded shoe, then a purple one, then an embroidered one.","Explicitly addresses the indifferent external goods (luxurious possessions, adornment) and the danger of pursuing them beyond natural need.",{"id":134,"name":135,"urlSlug":136},{"id":116,"name":117,"shortName":117,"urlSlug":118},"/epictetus/enchiridion/39",{"sectionId":429,"sectionLabel":430,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":431,"relevanceNote":432,"work":433,"author":434,"readingUrl":435},1126,"46","For remember how Socrates had so completely eliminated the thought of ostentation, that people came to him when they wanted him to introduce them to philosophers, and he used to bring them along.","The passage directly addresses the renunciation of ostentation and reputation-seeking, core concerns of external goods.",{"id":134,"name":135,"urlSlug":136},{"id":116,"name":117,"shortName":117,"urlSlug":118},"/epictetus/enchiridion/46",{"sectionId":437,"sectionLabel":438,"score":222,"scoreScale":17,"pullQuote":439,"relevanceNote":440,"work":441,"author":442,"readingUrl":443},1048,"12.04","Thus we respect whatever our neighbours will think about us more highly than we respect ourselves.","The passage addresses excessive concern for others' judgment and reputation—a key form of the external good the Stoics call indifferent.",{"id":21,"name":22,"urlSlug":23},{"id":25,"name":26,"shortName":27,"urlSlug":28},"/aurelius/meditations/12.04",1785969084423]