'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'. Some good, ancient, and stoic advice – from the Philosopher Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. He died #OnThisDay 180 CE. 🧵 
In a book he wrote to himself, known now as 'Meditations', the Roman Emperor wrote that happiness, moral virtue, love, & inner-strength are readily available to all of humanity, & that we need not look outside of ourselves to live a good, moral life.
People who share humanist values are likely to find great value in Stoic philosophy. It's highly practical & focuses on the human need to live ethically. It also focuses on how we can't control all aspects of life, but only our reaction to what happens within our own.
Its emphasis is 'to act in accordance with nature', and passages such as 'Not to waste time on nonsense. Not to be taken in by conjurors and hoodoo artists with their talk about incantations and exorcism and all the rest of it' are likely to resonate with humanists today.
If you're interested in Stoicism, here's a wonderfully spoken lecture by Dr. Michael Sugrue that paints a good picture – describing Aurelius as a man, the leader of the known world with absolute power, but who continually strives towards a good moral life.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
