The Most Important Stoic Virtue

We’ve heard it 1,000 times…

To master anything, one must first master oneself—one’s emotions, one’s thoughts, one’s actions.

Latin writer Publilius Syrus said, “Would you rule over a great empire? Rule over yourself.”

From Aristotle to Heraclitus to the Stoics, from The Iliad to the Bible to today, in Buddhism, in Confucianism, in Christianity—the ancients had many words and many symbols for this timeless law of the universe:

Temperentia.

Moderatio.

Enkrateia.

Sophrosyne.

Whatever the language, it’s all a way to spell D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E.

Seneca tried to instill it in the rulers he advised—that “most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.”

Nero didn’t listen. His desires conquered him, not the other way around.

Marcus Aurelius said, “Love the discipline you know, and let it support you.”

Discipline—it’s the thing that makes it possible to achieve greatness as well as bring greatness to whatever it is that you do, however humbly.

That’s why the Stoics said that discipline is the most important virtue.

Because without it, one cannot apply other Stoic lessons or Stoic virtues.

Anyone can help a stranger once, but not many times.

Anyone can accept things outside their control once, but not over and over again.

Anyone can resist a piece of cake on a Friday night, but not everyone can do it week after week until they reach their goal.

Anyone can read 20 pages one day—but almost no one does it consistently for a year.

Without it, without self-control, without boundaries—we risk not failing to meet our full potential, which for the Stoics was true misery.

And what was true in 300 BC is only truer today.

In a world of far more temptations and desires, discipline is more urgent than ever.

Is this the Stoic virtue you struggle with the most?

Till Next Time,

Said The Stoic