Dubito ergo cogito, ergo sum

 Resistance makes one stronger. I even accuse myself of not being stoic enough sometimes. IT'S A continuous struggle. It's not like you wake up and you are stoic. For me, if it were not a struggle, it wouldn't be this admirable.

Life is hard.

Life is complicated.

It’s full of choices. It’s full of dilemmas. It’s full of complex problems and confusing situations. It’s full of obstacles and opportunities. It’s full of grifters and liars and con artists and smooth talkers, as Marcus said. It’s also full of wonderful, fascinating, and incredible ideas and topics that you can’t possibly be “satisfied with ‘just getting the gist’ of….”

In short, life is a thinking person’s game.

That’s why the Stoics stressed the pursuit of wisdom. Because we need it. We need it right now. And we’ll need it later. We’ll need it when we face ethical dilemmas. We’ll need it when we’re weighing two life-changing opportunities. We’ll need it when we’re tested by frustration or fear. We need it when we must decide whether to speak up or stay silent, whether to give up or whether to endure or change.

You cannot have a good life without wisdom. Not only will problems overwhelm you, even eat you alive, but you’ll also leave so much unexplored. You will only do a fraction of what you’re capable of doing. Yet this wisdom—the kind the Stoics were often seeking, and have come to be known for—does not come easily. I realised that I cannot spell 'learned' without 'earned'.

Will you make the most of the time you have here? Will you have the wisdom you need when you face problems and difficulties? Misinformation, partisanship, distractions, and complexity? Will you see the opportunities and be of service to others? Will you be able to see what others can’t? Will you have the perspective required to know what matters and what you ought to do? Will you have the skill and the focus to explore what can be explored?

That’s why we do this work, why we study this philosophy, why we read these books and continue to talk, as Zeno said, to the dead who came before us.

UNGANG dontseli' stulo bhoii mina ngi hlale'themebeni

danki mdali.

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