Bring what you’re facing. Get back the exact words of a Stoic who faced it first, a plain modern reading, and one thing to do before the day is out.
Friday 30 October 2026
People are upset not by what happens but by their judgements about what happens.
Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.
What upsets us is rarely the event itself. It is the story we tell ourselves about it. A cancelled plan, a curt email, a bad result: each arrives as a plain fact, and then we add the verdict that it is a disaster. Epictetus is pointing at that second step. You can't always choose what happens, but you can notice the verdict and ask whether it holds up.
When something rattles you today, write down the bare fact in one line, then the judgement you added. Cross out the judgement.
Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 180 AD, and the last of the rulers later called the “Five Good Emperors”. Trained in Stoic philosophy as a young man, partly through his teacher Junius Rusticus, who lent him a copy of Epictetus’s lectures. His reign was hard going: long wars on the Danube frontier and the Antonine Plague. In the middle of it, often in camp, he kept private notes to himself in Greek, never meant for publication.
Born a slave at Hierapolis in Phrygia, in today’s Türkiye. In Rome he was owned by Epaphroditus, a freedman of Nero’s court, and was allowed to study under the Stoic teacher Musonius Rufus. Once freed, he taught in Rome until Domitian expelled the philosophers (around 93 AD), then founded a school at Nicopolis in north-western Greece. He wrote nothing himself; everything we have comes from his student Arrian.
Twelve books of short private notes in Greek, likely written in the 170s AD; the Greek title is usually given as “To Himself”. Unsystematic and blunt: reminders on duty, mortality and dealing with difficult people.
Arrian’s record of Epictetus’s classroom talks. Eight books once existed; four survive. Conversational, often funny, and demanding. We draw on the selection in Long’s edition.
The “handbook”: a short digest of Epictetus’s core teaching in 52 sections, opening with the division between what is in our power and what is not.
Every day except the Sabbath: one passage, a plain modern reading of about 120 words, and one practical thing to do that day.
Nothing goes out from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, using Auckland sunset times. Friday’s 6am edition still arrives; Sunday resumes.
Every quote is checked character for character against the source before sending; any mismatch blocks the edition. Each carries its work, book and section.
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Describe what’s going on. The bot picks one passage, quotes it exactly with its reference, and turns it into one concrete step. It never paraphrases inside quotation marks, and it is not therapy: in a crisis it points you to 1737 (NZ), Lifeline 13 11 14 (AU), or 111 / 000.
If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.Marcus Aurelius · Meditations 8.47
Write down what was actually said, word for word. Then ask: what in it is useful for the next report? Keep that, and let the rest go.
Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou usest for present things.Marcus Aurelius · Meditations 7.8
Each time you catch yourself rehearsing next week, name one thing you are dealing with well right now. You will meet the result with the same mind. Tonight, give it the sleep it needs.
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.Marcus Aurelius · Meditations 2.1
Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.Marcus Aurelius · Meditations 4.17
Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then, or bear with them.Marcus Aurelius · Meditations 8.59
No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.Marcus Aurelius · Meditations 10.16
Of things some are in our power, and others are not.Epictetus · Enchiridion 1
Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.Epictetus · Enchiridion 8
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At 6:00am New Zealand time (4:00am AEST / 5:00am AEDT in Sydney).
We keep the Sabbath, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. Friday’s edition still arrives, and Sunday picks up again.
Yes, word for word from George Long’s translations, with book and section given. Software checks each one against the source before it is sent.
Long translated in the 19th century and his work is in the public domain. We keep his words exactly and put the plain-English reading underneath.
Not yet. We’ll add him only from a translation we can verify is in the public domain.
No. Stoicism is a philosophy of how to live. Readers of any faith or none are welcome.
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All quotations are from translations by George Long (1800–1879), an English classical scholar: The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (first published 1862; Project Gutenberg eBook #15877) and The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments (1877; Project Gutenberg eBook #10661).
Both are well over a century old and in the public domain. Long’s Greek-word glosses are left out of the email body but kept in the corpus. Our modern readings and practical steps are our own, and always set apart from the quotation.
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