50 Very Short Rules for a Good Life From the Stoics

I’ve compiled 50 rules from the Stoics, gathered(почерпнул) from their immense(огромный) body of work across two thousand years. These rules functioned, then, as they do now, as guides to what the ancients called “the good life.” Hopefully some of them will illuminate your own path. Focus on what you can control.

2. You control how you respond(реагировать) to things.

3. Ask yourself, “Is this essential(существенно)?”

4. Meditate on your mortality(смертность) every day.

5. Value time more than money and possessions.

6. You are the product of your habits.

7. Remember you have the power to have no opinion.

8. Own the morning.

9. Put yourself up(выставьте) for review. Interrogate(допросите) yourself.

10. Don’t suffer(страдать) imagined troubles.

11. Try to see the good in people.

12. Never be overheard complaining(жалующийся)—even to yourself.

13. Two ears, one mouth for a reason.(два уха, один рот - это неспроста)

14. There is always something you can do.

15. Don’t compare yourself to others.

16. Live as if you’ve died and come back (every minute is bonus time).

17. “The best revenge(месть) is not to be like that.” —Marcus Aurelius

18. Be strict with yourself and tolerant with others.

19. Put every impression, emotion, to the test before acting on it.

20. Learn something from everyone.

21. Focus on process, not outcomes.

22. Define what success means to you.

23. Find a way to love everything that happens.

24. Seek out(ищите) challenges.

25. Don’t follow the mob(толпа).

26. Grab(держитесь) the “smooth handle.”(smooth handle - гладкая рукоять means the best way to resolve the problem with minimum fuss)

27. Every person is an opportunity for kindness.

28. Say no (a lot).

29. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

30. Find one thing that makes you wiser(мудрее) every day.

31. What’s bad for the hive(улей) is bad for the bee(пчела).

32. Don’t judge other people.

33. Study the lives of the greats.

34. Forgive, forgive, forgive.

35. Make a little progress each day.

36. Journal.

37. Prepare for life’s inevitable setbacks(неизбежные неудачи).

38. Look for the poetry in ordinary things.

39. To do wrong to one, is to do wrong to yourself.

40. Always choose “alive time.”

41. Associate only with people that make you better.

42. If someone offends(оскорбляет) you, realize you are complicit in taking offense.

43. Fate(судьба) behaves as she pleases…do not forget this.

44. Possessions are yours only in trust.

45. Don’t make your problems worse by bemoaning(оплакавая) them.

46. Accept success without arrogance(высокомерие), handle failure with indifference(безразлично).

47. Courage(храбрость). Temperance(умеренность). Justice(справедливость). Wisdom(мудрость). (Always).

48. The obstacle(препятствие) is the way.

49. Ego is the enemy(враг).

50. Stillness(спокойствие) is the key.

I’ll leave you with the one rule that captures all the rules. It comes from Epictetus: “Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody(воплощать) it.”

Don’t talk about it, be about it. The whole point of Stoicism is what you do. It’s who you are. It’s the act of virtue(добродетель), not the act of talking about virtue. Or reading about it. Or writing about it. It’s about embodying your rules and principles. Letting your actions speak for you. So, Marcus Aurelius reminded himself and now us, “Waste no more time talking about what a good man is like. Be one.”