Monday, April 4, 2011

Daily Question: 4/4/11

Required Daily: Read Tacitus' description of the Death of Seneca and Book One of M. Aurelius' Meditations. Find quotes within those two texts that help explain what Stoicism is all about.

  •  "Upon this the tribune asserted that he saw no signs of fear, and perceived no sadness in his words or in his looks."
  • "Seneca, quite unmoved, asked for tablets on which to inscribe his will..."
  • "Seneca, as his aged frame, attenuated by frugal diet, allowed the blood to escape but slowly, severed also the veins of his legs and knees."
  • "when even in the height of his wealth and power he was thinking of his life's close."
  • "From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government of my temper."
  • "From the reputation and remembrance of my father, modesty and a manly character"
  • "I learned endurance of labour, and to want little, and to work with my own hands, and not to meddle with other people's affairs, and not to be ready to listen to slander."
  • "to be always the same, in sharp pains, on the occasion of the loss of a child, and in long illness; and to see clearly in a living example that the same man can be both most resolute and yielding, and not peevish in giving his instruction; and to have had before my eyes a man who clearly considered his experience and his skill in expounding philosophical principles as the smallest of his merits; and from him I learned how to receive from friends what are esteemed favours, without being either humbled by them or letting them pass unnoticed"
  • "I learned self-government, and not to be led aside by anything; and cheerfulness in all circumstances, as well as in illness"

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