Stoic-Saturday

Stoic Saturday: When the Law Becomes a Suggestion Think clearly. Live intentionally. Love deeply. The Rule of Law Isn’t a Spectator Sport Marcus Aurelius wrote that “the best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” Today, that enemy isn’t just a person—it’s the slow rot of a system that once held power in check. The rule of law isn’t a given. It’s a daily practice, like flossing or not eating the entire pizza in one sitting. And right now, it’s being treated like a suggestion rather than a rule. ...

“By looking forward to the coming of our sorrows we take the sting out of them when they come.” — Seneca, De Consolatione ad Marciam, IX (trans. Aubrey Stewart, 1900) The epigraph in the first Stoic Saturday originally read “The man who has anticipated the coming of troubles takes away their power when they arrive,” attributed to Seneca. That wording is not Seneca’s: it appears in no Seneca text and in no published translation, and has been replaced with the actual passage. ...

“By looking forward to the coming of our sorrows we take the sting out of them when they come.” — Seneca, De Consolatione ad Marciam, IX (trans. Aubrey Stewart, 1900) This epigraph previously read “The man who has anticipated the coming of troubles takes away their power when they arrive,” attributed to Seneca. That wording is not Seneca’s: it appears in no Seneca text and in no published translation, and traces to a modern paraphrase circulating online since about 2017. It has been replaced with the actual passage. A loose paraphrase of this same line, “He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand” (trans. J. W. Basore, Loeb, 1932), is also in circulation. ...