Key Ideas
1. Separate agency from circumstance
Judgement and chosen response are proper objects of responsibility; body, possessions and reputation remain exposed to causes beyond personal command.
2. Examine impressions before agreeing with them
An appearance may announce danger, insult or advantage without proving its interpretation true.
3. Desire only on terms compatible with freedom
Demands aimed at uncontrollable outcomes make tranquillity dependent upon fortune.
4. External loss is not automatically moral harm
An event can remove comfort or opportunity without compelling a person to abandon integrity.
5. Remember the nature of what you love
People and possessions are mortal and changeable; recognising this condition makes affection realistic rather than indifferent.
6. Let effort belong to you and outcomes to events
Preparation and action remain necessary, but success cannot be made the price of acting honourably.
7. Fulfil duties through your relationships
The roles of family member, neighbour and citizen help identify appropriate conduct even when others fail in theirs.
8. Reputation is not character
Another person’s praise, blame or honour concerns an external judgement and cannot establish moral worth.
9. Count the cost of philosophical training
Admiration for wisdom is insufficient without discipline, restraint and repeated practice.
10. Avoid performing philosophy for an audience
Austere appearance, learned quotation and public claims of progress can become new forms of vanity.
11. Let pressure reveal whether principles are stable
Suffering, enjoyment, applause and humiliation show whether ideas have become durable habits of judgement.
12. Keep bodily care proportionate
The body deserves reasonable attention but should not become the governing purpose of life.
13. Accept necessity without surrendering moral choice
Events may be unavoidable, while the quality of one’s response remains a field for reason.
14. Measure learning by conduct
Interpretation and logic matter when they strengthen practice, not when they merely display intellectual skill.
15. Progress requires continuing vigilance
Character is not secured by one insight; it is maintained by repeatedly returning attention to one’s own judgements and actions.