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The Four Stoic Virtues Simplified
Practical philosophy you can use every day
In today’s world, Stoicism is defined as the endurance of pain or hardship without displaying feelings or complaints. Tough times are inevitable together with painful realities that often drive us to lash out and be aggressive, cold and mean-spirited. But there is a way to handle these difficult situations, enabling us to curve that burst of emotion and utilise it for the greater good.
Stoicism, an ancient Greek school of philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium, is centred on living a life of virtue and reason to obtain true happiness. Stoics believed that everything that happens around us results from a cosmic relationship between cause and effect which they defined as Logos. They accepted that we do not have control over the events that affect us. However, we do have control over how we approach said events.
The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own . . .— Epictetus
The above quote is by far the core defining principle of Stoicism. It has dramatically helped me view situations as they are and not through the lens of emotion.
The Stoics understood this way of thinking as essential to one’s personal growth in the pursuit of self-improvement.
Four distinct virtues were established which embody this philosophy.
These are:
Justice
The standards you uphold are a measure of how you carry yourself and interact with your fellow human being. For example, do you treat everyone you encounter in life with fairness and kindness? or do you treat people according to what they can do for you?
Justice directly influences all the other virtues, and one cannot achieve great things without advocating for justice. It’s the defining fabric by which all laws and nations are governed. Justice is what helps us fight for what is right in a world of so much wrong.
