From Zeno to Marcus Aurelius, the works of nearly every Stoic feature the repetition of four words, four virtues that go to the core of the philosophy:
Courage. Temperance. Justice. Wisdom.
We hear in Meditations Marcus Aurelius speak of "epithets for the self," watchwords for his life. That's what these virtues are supposed to be. Like the cardinal points on a compass, they are supposed to direct us, guide us, point us in the right direction. As Zeno taught, these virtues are at once "inseparable but yet distinct and different from one another."
What good is courage if not in pursuit of justice? And how can we know what is just and right without wisdom? And without temperance and self-discipline, how will we have the strength both to acquire wisdom and to apply courage?
In 2019, I (hey, it's Ryan…) started working on a series of books about the Stoic virtues. I started with Courage Is Calling, which was later followed by Discipline Is Destiny and Right Thing, Right Now. I tried to bring these virtues to life through powerful stories of figures like Socrates, Florence Nightingale, Frederick Douglass, Toni Morrison, Epictetus, and Harvey Milk (just to name a few!). I've also been tested in my own life about them, first living through a global pandemic as we all did, then trying to balance my work and raising a family, and most recently when my lecture on wisdom at the Naval Academy was cancelled in a shocking example of political interference. What was the right thing to do? What would Zeno or Marcus or Epictetus or James Stockdale advise? When do you stand firm in your principles? When do you let something go?
This is where the fourth and final virtue comes in. It is wisdom that helps us answer those kinds of questions. It is wisdom that helps us find what Aristotle called the "golden mean" between two vices. There is no proper application of any of the virtues without reflection first, without understanding and knowledge of what's what. It is wisdom that tells us when to apply courage, the midpoint between cowardice and recklessness. It is wisdom that tells us what causes to support and which are misguided or wrong, it finds the line between good and evil, right and wrong, fair and unfair, ethical and unethical.
As we've talked about before, the four virtues are like the Cardinal directions—north, south, east, west. They are a kind of compass, guiding us, directing us through life's day-to-day choices and challenges. And, to keep the metaphor going, wisdom is what calibrates the compass, ensures that it's pointing true north, that we're not heading confidently in the wrong direction.
Of course, no one is born wise. And no one "was ever wise by chance," Seneca said. "Wisdom comes haphazard to no man." It takes commitment. It takes study, it takes reflection, it takes experience.
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