Massimo Pigliucci

three levels of influence that we have over the world.

Logic defeats anger, because anger, even when it’s justified, can quickly become irrational. So use cold hard logic on yourself.”

Life, for the Stoics, is an ongoing project, and death, its logical, natural end point, is nothing special in and of itself and nothing that we should particularly fear.

focus our attention and efforts where we have the most power and then let the universe run as it will.

regret is a waste of our emotional energy. We cannot change the past—it is outside of our control. We can, and should, learn from it, but the only situations we can do something about are those happening here and now.

Socrates tells his distraught friends that he has a moral duty to accept the law even when it is patently misused, because we don’t get to change the rules when they happen not to suit us.

Epictetus, Seneca, Musonius Rufus, and Marcus Aurelius speak to us in plain language, far removed from the often cryptic Buddhist texts or even the flowery allegories of early Christianity.

event–cum–social science experiment

Man’s Search for Meaning

Aaron T. Beck, author of Cognitive Therapy of Depression