Bitesize Inspiration: Persist and Resist with Epictetus

 

Welcome back to It's a Classical Life, and if this is your first time here, welcome! Each week I try and post a little quote which I call Bitesize Inspiration. Other posts are usually longer, but these ones I try to keep short but inspiring. The idea is to take what you will from the quote, without my waffling on! I take inspiration from a wide range of sources, from classic writers, musicians, poets, philosophers, historians and more. This week, I have some Stoic inspiration for you. The Stoics are one of my favourite sources for inspiration, as their beliefs and values continue to remain relevant and timeless. 

In today's quote Epictetus gives us some fairly common sensical advice. However, I believe that common sense is lacking in many people's lives these days, so perhaps we could all do with being reminded of it more often! Persist and resist. Have the courage and perseverance to keep moving toward what is good, and the self-control and awareness to resist what is bad. These are the ingredients for living a good life. Sounds pretty simple right? Sounds like advice that we should all already know and follow. So why is it so hard for us to stick to? The beauty of the Stoics, if you are unaware, is that they view each day as a new chance to start afresh. Each day we can begin with persisting or continuing with those habits that we enjoy or that we know are good for us (you can read some of the habits that I would like to persist with here) and each day we can continue to resist those habits that aren't so good for us. No judgement, no guilt. Just a simple guideline to live the best that we can.

Thanks for stopping by, and please don't hesitate to share what are some things you plan to persist with or some things that are difficult to resist. Did someone say chocolate?