Simple Stoic Advice
No Closed Doors
No Closed Doors
The beautiful thing about Stoic philosophy is the advice contained within it is just as applicable today as it was when it was first written all those many years ago. We can learn a great deal from interpreting the advice provided and using it to our advantage as we go throughout our own lives.
Today’s quote comes to us courtesy of Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, III.7:
Quote
“Never regard something as doing you good if it makes you betray a trust, or lose your sense of shame, or makes you show hatred, suspicion, ill will, or hypocrisy, or a desire for things best done behind closed doors.”
Advice
The Stoics held reason and wisdom as the highest virtue. This is what they refer to as the “commanding-faculty.” As a part of reason, the Stoics separated what was and was not within their control. Epictetus famously wrote the Dichotomy of Control, stating that the chief task in life, the most important thing we do, is to identify and separate what is and is not within our power (or control).
Marcus here is reminding himself of the same. By valuing external things, by holding passions towards externals, it opens ourselves up to manipulation, both by our own emotions and by other individuals. Marcus is therefore reinforcing to himself (remember, Meditations is really a notebook of internal thoughts) that our job, what is within our control, is to pursue wisdom, pursue justice, to do right, and to not do wrong.
This is why he ends it saying, “…makes you show hatred, suspicion, ill will, or hypocrisy, or a desire for things done behind closed doors”, the opposite of which would be allowing people to see your actions in public. People tend to do things such as betrayal of trust, shame, hatred, etc. behind closed doors. Therefore, one should act as though always on public display, pursing wisdom and justice, and bettering oneself through continuous, virtuous acts.
We send a Stoic meditation every Monday morning directly to your inbox. To sign up to receive our Monday Meditations, click here.
The Stoic Within participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to Amazon. In more simplistic terms, if you buy a book on Amazon from a link in this article, I receive a very small percentage of its price.