A couple of years before I got sober, in fact when I was still completely drunk, I became interested in the philosophy of Stoicism, which at the time was becoming all the rage, largely thanks to the work of American writer, Ryan Holiday. Pissed though I was, the stuff made an impression on me. I wished, through the haze, that I could be more like the Stoics, great philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius, Zeno, Epictetus and Seneca. At the heart of Stoicism is the belief, which I’ve lifted straight from Wikipedia because it works, is that:
‘…the path to happiness is found in accepting the moment as it presents itself, by not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or by the fear of pain, by using one’s mind to understand the world and to do one’s part in nature’s plan, and by working together and treating others fairly and justly.’
The Stoics also believed that the things we do are more important than the things we say – an eternal truth, surely – and that, in essence, the truth lies within. That the Buddha said pretty much the same things wasn’t lost on me, and these ideas and values struck me not just as the philosophies of Ancient Greek men, but human truths that addressed the essential self within all of us.
I’m not big on inspirational quotes, in fact I hate them, but these are not that, but rather epithets taken from a profound and fully-developed philosophical system that has survived millenia. In the sayings and writings of the Stoics I found genuine solace and strength, particularly as recovery began. It strikes me that some of these could almost be written for addicts. I’ve included only five quotes from each of the major Stoics here for reasons of space, but there are many, many more if you Google them and there’s a reading list below. But enough of what I think, let me leave you with some of those Stoic thoughts, which I believe are of definite use not just to those of us in recovery, but – as social beings – to all of us.
Marcus Aurelius
‘If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.’
‘It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.’
‘Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.
‘Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.’
‘The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.’
Epictetus
‘Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.’
‘There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond our power or our will.’
‘It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.’
‘The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.’
‘Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.’
Seneca
‘We suffer more in imagination than in reality.’
‘Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.’
‘It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it.’
‘The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately’
‘We should always allow some time to elapse, for time discloses the truth’
Further reading:
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
Epictetus, Discourses and Selected Writings
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic and The Obstacle is the Way
Love this. I discovered the Stoics at the beginning of my sober journey four plus years ago (I was reading anything and everything philosophy etc just to keep my newly sober busy mind occupied) and they have been a part of my heart and recipe for living ever since. Great quotes you pulled. Thanks.