William C. Spears

Tag: stoicism

  • Why the Stoicism Trend is Good for National Security

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    William C. Spears
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    This article first appeared at my Substack, Officium: Stoicism and Military Service. If this kind of information is useful to you, you might check it out. I first encountered Stoicism in Nimitz Library at the Naval Academy. I was killing time between classes, avoiding a lab report when I happened across James Stockdale’s lectures on Epictetus.…

  • Video: The Stoic Knife

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    William C. Spears
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    For anyone wondering why there’s a giant knife on the cover of my book: At 17 minutes, it’s pretty short, but this presentation I recently did for the Modern Stoicism organization pretty much covers it.

  • Be Like the Purple Thread

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    William C. Spears
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    Epictetus, Discourses 1.2: …that’s why, when Florus was considering whether he should attend Nero’s show to perform some part in it himself, Agrippinus said to him, “Go!” And when Florus asked him, “then why aren’t you going yourself?” he replied, “Because I’ve never even considered it. For as soon as anyone begins to consider such…