I read the book below and either learned useful ideas or found creative inspiration or both, which means now you can:
Take my notes and assorted excerpts for your own use
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—Mark
“If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; If you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.”
Gaius Musonius Rufus (1st century AD) is probably the least known of the 4 great Roman Stoic philosophers (+ Seneca + Epictetus + Aurelius) but by many accounts the greatest—and famous for being the teacher of the more famous Epictetus. He taught philosophy in Rome during the reign of Nero, and as consequence was sent into exile in 65 AD only to return to Rome under the reign of Galba. What still exists is minimal and fragmentary, as most of his teachings were delivered verbally, only ever written down by his pupils as lecture notes or marginalia.
Musonius Rufus: Lectures and Sayings, translation by Cynthia King
Rufus was above all a practical thinker, always occupied with aligning ideas with their actual usage in everyday life for all people. This notion of alignment runs through the whole of “Lectures and Sayings”
“Only by exhibiting actions in harmony with the sound words which he has received will anyone be helped by philosophy.” 👇
Rufus was also insistent that thinking about philosophy was never enough. One must embody and practice it actively, consistently, and relentlessly for it to be of any value or meaning.
“The person who claims to be studying philosophy must practice it even more diligently than the person who aspires to the art of medicine or some similar skill...” 👇
He also emphasized the importance of not only being willing to endure pain, but that doing so was the only way to acquire (or be worthy of) anything good at all.
“...Because we humans acquire all good things by pain, the person who is himself unwilling to endure pain all but condemns himself to being worthy of nothing good.” 👇
And it’s not just pain and discomfort that Rufus looked on admirably, but death itself. Only when we conquer the hold that death and pain have over our mind can we be in any position to behave boldly, with courage and steadfastness.
And the study of philosophy is, above all, the study of what it means to live a life in the face of inevitable death.
“...they must pursue the study of philosophy, since they could not become courageous in any other way.” 👇
“If a philosopher cannot scorn blows or jeering, he is useless, inasmuch as a philosopher must make it clear that he scorns even death.”
A philosopher in this sense, Rufus says, must not let mere offenses or jeers penetrate his psyche. Once death has no hold over you, surely you can’t let the negative opinions of mere mortals have more impact.
“A philosopher who thinks it right to forgive someone who offends him and acts accordingly is obviously better than one who think that he must defend himself by filing lawsuits and indictments…” 👇
Rufus also had a lot to say about more common, quotidian matters where he felt philosophy was best seen and embodied—not in the school but in the street.
On the virtues of farming:
“What is more characteristic of a free person than that he provide necessities for himself rather than receive them from others?”
He spoke highly of farming because of its immediacy, allowing for direct interaction with growing things that can only become useful to the extent they are respected and tended to carefully. Farming also allowed for rest periods, which he saw as essential for thinking and synthesis.
As seen below, he understands that this is not most people’s idea of how to learn and practice philosophy, but warns that “it is better for most of the young people who claim to be studying philosophy not to go near a philosopher.”
“Those who do farm work can learn the most essential and useful things...” 👇
Philosophy, after all, is not about thinking but rather doing. Thinking, to the extent it is involved, is the means and not the end.
“Real philosophers need only contemplate what it is to do the right thing.”
Rufus warns of the danger posed by food due to the multitude of ways it can lead us astray from what we know to be '“the right thing.” Below he succinctly describes the dangers posed by fast food, fancy restaurants, junk food, overeating, and snacking between meals:
“No right-thinking person will want to follow the masses and live to eat, as they do, in constant pursuit of gastronomic pleasures.”
From food he moves on to the virtues of selflessness over acquisition, and implores his students to consider using their means to help others in their community rather than buy and hoard material possessions of their own.
“Isn’t it more praiseworthy to help a lot of people than to live expensively?” 👇
And he has a lot to say about luxury which, by definition, is an insidious blend of the unnecessary, the ostentatious, and the extravagant. In the passage below he ultimately ends up describing that modern pitfall of self-reinforcing never-enoughness known as the hedonic treadmill. (the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. In other words: anything new—good or bad—quickly becomes normal.)
“I myself would therefore choose to be sick rather than to live in luxury.” 👇
It should come as no surprise that Rufus endorses “the law of parsimony” in all things—and this includes hair!
“Humans should use reason to assist nature to supply what is missing and remove what is excessive.”
Below is what may be my favorite Rufus quote. It’s a great reminder that we don’t have nearly as much control as we think we do in terms of the path and direction of our lives. But what’s more: even if we did, we wouldn’t necessarily be controlling things for the better.
Nature, circumstances, obstacles, and fortune have a way of knowing what’s best for us. Of course, it also couldn’t be any other way:
“If you work hard to do what is right, do not be upset by roadblocks; think about how many of the things in your life haven’t turned out as you wanted them to, but as they should have.”
In true Stoic fashion, Rufus returns to the foundational principle of focusing only on what one can do, and remain detached from what is outside of one’s control. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb phrases it in his book Antifragile: “Stoicism is about the domestication, not necessarily the elimination, of emotions. It is not about turning humans into vegetables. My idea of the modern Stoic sage is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into information, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.”
Here, Rufus echoes something entrepreneur and venture capitalist Naval Ravikant has said, which I think about often: “Not wanting something is as good as having it”:
“Indeed, we will hold that one man and one man only is truly wealthy—he who learns to want nothing in every circumstance.”
If you’re ever at a loss to decide which course of action to take or which decision to make, think of the following passage from Rufus as a reminder to consider what will endure after the action is taken:
“If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; If you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.”
(This is not an affiliate link, I get nothing if you buy it, but still… you might want to buy it. ☝️ )