Link to article about the Tom Wolfe book with good summary and explanation of its connections to stoicism, written by Creighton university philosophy professor:
http://puffin.creighton.edu/phil/Stephen...Stoics.htm
Some more Marcus Aurelius quotes:
“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
“If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.”
“How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
“Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.”
“Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.”
“You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.”
“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.”
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One thing I find in common with him is his view on god and the afterlife. It sounds in a way similar to Pascal's wager, yet its not about worship and faith but about virtue. That makes so much more sense to me. Would a just god care if you are a believer, or a virtuous person? And virtue as its own reward makes sense, for at the very least it provides an attainable goal and an anchor for one's life.
To those who say stoicism is wrong to focus on abstaining and enduring...when was the last time material gain or a hot girl made you truly happy? Yes, I remember that super hot blonde I banged..but that pleasure lasted an hour. It does little good now, and when a person is ill or injured it won't help. But looking with detachment at things allows you to keep a more balanced and stable life, in both avoiding gluttony and enduring hardship. I'd say it makes one more successful because you strive for success with persistence and a long term perspective.