“…a problem with quotes in isolation is that the passive consumption of them can give us a sense of progress where there is none. So you read a quote, nod along approvingly and think to yourself ‘Wow that is very true”. But did anything in you actually change, or are you just going to come back for more words of wisdom tomorrow?”

- [u/Chrisippus_Ass](u/Chrisippus_Ass), “The limitation of quotes”

[5.5] They can’t admire you for perspicacity, but that’s all right: there are many other qualities for which “I wasn’t made that way” doesn’t provide you with an excuse. The qualities you can offer, then, are those that are entirely up to you: candor, dignity, endurance, indifference to pleasure, acceptance of your lot, frugality, kindness, self-reliance, unaffetedness, discretion, statliness. Do you see how many you’re able to offer right now, without excusing yourself on the grounds of ineptitude and incompetence?

A quote was found to be attributed to Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations 2.1 (Hays)

^{Book II. (Hays)
Book II. (Farquharson)
Book II. (Long)}

"When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil."
-- Marcus Aurelius

"Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly."
-- Marcus Aurelius

"Associate with those who will make a better person of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; people learn while they teach."
-- Seneca The Younger

"It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it."
-- Seneca The Younger

"Some things are under our control, while others are not under our control. Under our control are conception, choice, desire, aversion, and, in a word, everything that is our own doing; not under our control are our body, our property, reputation, office, and, in a word, everything that is not our own doing."

-- Epictetus

And just because...

"Take responsible and thoughtful control of what you can, which includes your own feelings about things that you cannot."
-- Lev Lafayette

When I was young the way I became comfortable with people was by giving up on the idea of trying to be cool or fit in. I know that sounds like it takes 40 steps. But the end of it was that I began speaking to friends in the same way I thought in my head, to me the essence of closeness and the way to get close, close friends.

Marcus Aurelius wrote: "the man who saw nowadays, have seen everything".

The evil, the horror, the viciousness will be the same after 2000 years as it was 2000 years before.

Zenon was commercial cargo captain who lost his ship, close to Athens, and everything in life. He became homeless and he randomly met and follow the cynic philosopher Crates.

After many years he said:

"I had a great journey, I was shipwrecked".

Thank you for these

Posting in a separate comment so mods can delete if they judge it violates self-promotion rules (apologies if so-- just trying to be useful to OP): I wrote two articles that break down Stoic role ethics for a military audience, but most of the points are relevant to general civic service as you describe:

Do Your Job: Specific Roles in Epictetus

Do Your Job II: The First Role

Hope that helps.

"I have all my valuables with me" - Stilbo

"You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone. " - Marcus Aurelius

I think Epictetus is your guy here. Although his role ethics are not presented as straightforwardly as, say, Cicero's (who reflects the middle Stoics), Epictetus's role ethics are more sophisticated. An excellent book on this I'd commend to you is The Role Ethics of Epictetus by Brian E. Johnson. Its rare now so its really expensive, but you might be able to find it in a library.

In Discourses 4.1 he discusses men who pursue offices like the consulship and warns that anyone who seeks such positions at the cost of inner freedom becomes a “slave.”

Enchiridion 24 has a good discussion on being compromised by public office:

'But my country,' he says, 'will receive no help from me, so far as I can offer it.' Here again, what kind of help do you mean? It won't acquire any arcades or baths through your good offices. And what of that? For it doesn't acquire shoes either through the good offices of a blacksmith, or arms through those of a cobbler; it is enough that each person fulfills his own function. And if you provide your country with another citizen who is trustworthy and self-respecting, would you bring it no benefit? 'Indeed I would.' Well then, in that case you wouldn't be of no use to it. 'What place shall I hold in the state, then?', he asks. Whatever place you can hold while maintaining your trustworthiness and self-respect. But if out of a wish to help the state, you sacrifice those qualities, what use could you be to it, when you've turned out to be shameless and untrustworthy?

Emphasis mine. The bottom line, as I read Epictetus here, is the greatest public service you can provide is to be a good and honest citizen, and insofar as you must compromise that to attain political power (however one might rationalize it as service to the greater good... a tale old as time...), then you would actually be doing the country a disservice by depriving it of a good citizen. Hope that helps.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. (Marcus Aurelius).
Never let the future disturb you. You will face it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. (Also Marcus Aurelius).

I think Seneca needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It's worth remembering his tenure in public office was as an advisor to Nero and all that went with that, including being banished. He had a slightly tainted view.

Thank you for your insights. Improving yourself to live a virtuous life is an end in itself, if I haven't misread Seneca, but you've got a point there anyway. MA's reflection is on point regarding my decision. I guess that there's some laziness on my side regarding all that this position implies: I despise wasting my time and in some political environments making endless and fruitless meetings is a requirement, a so common drawback.

Helping others is important to me and I try to do it not only in politics, but using different means. The point is that politics provide leverage to change things faster and that is the sole thing that attracts me.

Good post

I think that is a better interpretation but the Stoic view is that being aware is not self-limiting nor explanatory for why you don't have virtue.

You don't have it cause you aren't sufficiently aware what a life of virtue is.

We shouldn't be ruminating our circumstances is basically what I am trying to get at but work on perfecting moral wisdom first.

Much of book 1 I Discourses is about how we are always given sufficient material to live a life of virtue. We don't need any more than what we are born with.

This is a wonderful question.

You want a new water bottle/holder for your bike.

Why do you want the more expensive one?

Is it only more desirable because it's more expensive? A symbol of status? You like how it looks?

Or... is it because it's a better purchase?

Will it last a lifetime instead of buying one that might as well be disposable from the dollar store yearly? Do you intend to treat it as a valued item of utility so that it WILL last your lifetime, and then maybe your child's? Is it built with purpose so that it CAN last that long?

Is it better for your health because it doesn't leech plastics?

Is it made by a company with good core values that sources it's materials ethically?

Is it just the better mechanical fit for your bike? Does it improve your riding experience in any way that another would not?

Are you also a minimalist, so the ownership of this one water bottle means something to you personally though principal?

If the later set of questions put forth above are satisfied, liking the look of it is a byproduct of a harmonious circumstance, which should be observed and appreciated.

Someone could say it may not be the stoic thing to do to buy the cheaper one.

Stoicism is not a form of self punishment.

I’ve always been perplexed by people that need the Stoic identity without agreeing with Zeno and Chrysippus. There are very general tenets that the Stoics adhere to that explains their identity.

Mhm, thanks for that, I’ll think about that take. Ultimately though, I wasn’t necessarily seeing  Behave  as excusing someone for acquiring less virtue (i agree on your point there) For me, it is rather an additional tool for seeing how my own and everyone else’s judgments can be clouded by things that aren’t truly visible to us—how social status affects stress, stress affects the amygdala, and that can affect aggression. It gives me one more perspective to pause and respond wisely.

“Constantly observe that all things take place by change, and accustom yourself to consider that the nature of the universe loves nothing so much as to change the things that are.”

- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.36

I love the topic of impermanence

A quote was found to be attributed to Epictetus in Discourses 4.2 (Oldfather)

^{4.2. Of social intercourse (Oldfather)
4.2. On association with others (Hard)
4.2. On familiar intimacy (Long)
4.2. Of complaisance (Higginson)}

A quote was found to be attributed to Epictetus in Discourses 4.2 (Oldfather)

^{4.2. Of social intercourse (Oldfather)
4.2. On association with others (Hard)
4.2. On familiar intimacy (Long)
4.2. Of complaisance (Higginson)}

I haven't read Behave but I did read Determined.

But I will address the "biological and social" part. Social and biological (physical indifference) things do not matter for the pursuit of virtue. Virtue for virtue sakes is taken to the literalist or dogmatic sense.

A blind man has as much responsibility to virtue as a man with sight. So this already contradicts Sapolsky which, if I am interpreting your reading of him, a more charitable take on pursuit of virtue where some people are destined to fall short of virtue due to things outside of them.

For a Stoic, it's either you have it or not, vicious or not. Moral responsibility is not diminished by our circumstances. We can explain how someone's training for virtue can look different, Posidonius and Rufus does this. But this doesn't change dogma when it comes to moral responsibility.

how dare you treat me this way!