213 definitions
Enthusiasm (n.) always wanes: last night's ardent hero wakes to cold morning thoughts about the glories of self-sacrifice.
Epictetus (n.) was among the greatest talkers of antiquity: there is more realistic dialogue in this philosopher than in all the playwrights.
The Final end (n.) is the one thing we do everything else for and do for nothing else; everyone agrees it is happiness, and then everyone disagrees about what happiness is.
Happiness (n.) cannot be proved equal to virtue until both words are rethought: virtue as more than keeping rules, happiness as more than owning goods.
History (n.) of the Stoics was written by the victors: nearly every surviving witness to the school was its enemy.
Injustice (n.) is never done willingly: whoever does wrong mistakenly believes it will benefit them — not saintliness, merely psychology.
Numbness (n.) looks like a bargain only when the pains of a life far outweigh its joys.
Philosophy (n.) in the Hellenistic schools spent its ingenuity proving the most outrageous conclusions from the tamest intuitions.
A Preconception (n.) is the true seed of a concept that experience plants in every child — seeing enough cows gives you the real idea of cow, and the same goes for good and justice.
Self-sufficiency (n.) as Socrates lived it ran both ways: he wanted nothing because he was temperate, and he could be neither bribed nor bullied because he wanted nothing.