Moral Letters

Stoic philosophy, rewritten as letters to someone I love

  1. Letter 1 Nothing Is Ours Except Time
  2. Letter 2 Linger
  3. Letter 3 What Friend Actually Means
  4. Letter 4 The Last Evil
  5. Letter 5 Don't Perform It
  6. Letter 6 I Learn in Order to Teach
  7. Letter 7 What the Crowd Does to You
  8. Letter 8 Why I've Gone Quiet
  9. Letter 9 What You Can Carry Through Fire
  10. Letter 10 The Person You're Alone With
  11. Letter 11 The Witness You Carry
  12. Letter 12 I Have Lived
  13. Letter 13 Most of It Never Comes
  14. Letter 14 How to Stay Out of Trouble
  15. Letter 15 Come Back to the Mind
  16. Letter 16 Keep Going
  17. Letter 17 XVII. On Philosophy and Riches
  18. Letter 18 XVIII. On Festivals and Fasting
  19. Letter 19 XIX. On Worldliness and Retirement
  20. Letter 20 XX. On Practising what you Preach
  21. Letter 21 XXI. On the Renown which my Writings will Bring you
  22. Letter 22 Letter XXII. On the Futility of Half‑Way Measures
  23. Letter 23 XXIII. On the True Joy which Comes from Philosophy
  24. Letter 24 XXIV. On Despising Death
  25. Letter 25 XXV. On Reformation
  26. Letter 26 XXVI. On Old Age and Death
  27. Letter 27 XXVII. On the Good which Abides
  28. Letter 28 XXVIII. On Travel as a Cure for Discontent
  29. Letter 29 XXIX. On the Critical Condition of Marcellinus
  30. Letter 30 What He Said When Death Was Close
  31. Letter 31 Stop up your ears — even to the ones who love you.
  32. Letter 32 On Progress
  33. Letter 33 Stop quoting. Start knowing.
  34. Letter 34 You make me feel young again.
  35. Letter 35 Love isn't the same as friendship. I want both.
  36. Letter 36 Leave Them to Their Race
  37. Letter 37 You made a promise. That changes everything.
  38. Letter 38 The quiet word is the one that stays.
  39. Letter 39 The noble soul cannot rest in what is small.
  40. Letter 40 Your words are the only portrait I have of you.
  41. Letter 41 What you are looking for is already inside you.
  42. Letter 42 Nothing costs more than the things we think are free
  43. Letter 43 You matter more than you think — so live accordingly
  44. Letter 44 Stop apologising for where you started
  45. Letter 45 Stop perfecting the argument. Start living the answer
  46. Letter 46 I meant to glance at it. I couldn't stop.
  47. Letter 47 Treat the people below you the way you'd want to be treated by those above.
  48. Letter 48 Philosophy promised you something. Hold it to that promise.
  49. Letter 49 I passed a place we both know. You came back to me instantly.
  50. Letter 50 The faults you blame on circumstance are travelling with you.
  51. Letter 51 Where you choose to be says something about who you are becoming.
  52. Letter 52 You cannot do this alone. Choose carefully who helps you.
  53. Letter 53 The worse the illness, the less you feel it.
  54. Letter 54 Death has already preceded us. We just forgot.
  55. Letter 55 Hiding is not the same as living quietly.
  56. Letter 56 The Noise Is Not the Problem
  57. Letter 57 Every Road Has a Tunnel
  58. Letter 58 You Are Not the Same Person Who Started Reading This
  59. Letter 59 The Difference Between Pleasure and Joy
  60. Letter 60 What They Wished For You
  61. Letter 61 Dying Well Means Dying Gladly
  62. Letter 62 You Can Choose Your Company
  63. Letter 63 Grieve, But Don't Perform It
  64. Letter 64 The People Who Worked on Your Behalf
  65. Letter 65 What Were You Made For
  66. Letter 66 Virtue Doesn't Come in Degrees
  67. Letter 67 What You're Actually Asking For
  68. Letter 68 Retire, But Don't Announce It
  69. Letter 69 Stay Where You Are
  70. Letter 70 The Door Is Always Open
  71. Letter 71 What Are You Aiming At?
  72. Letter 72 Don't Wait Until You Have Time
  73. Letter 73 You Already Have What God Has
  74. Letter 74 Stop Borrowing Trouble
  75. Letter 75 Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say
  76. Letter 76 It Is Never Too Late to Learn How to Live
  77. Letter 77 The Play Doesn't Have to Be Long
  78. Letter 78 What Got Me Through
  79. Letter 79 Do the Work Anyway
  80. Letter 80 Take Off the Mask
  81. Letter 81 Give Anyway
  82. Letter 82 The Body Knows Before the Mind Admits It
  83. Letter 83 Don't Philosophize About the Obvious
  84. Letter 84 You Are What You've Digested
  85. Letter 85 The Difference Between Less Afraid and Not Afraid
  86. Letter 86 What the Old Walls Know
  87. Letter 87 The Cart, the Figs, and the Blush I Couldn't Hide
  88. Letter 88 What All That Learning Is Actually For
  89. Letter 89 The Map Is Not the Territory
  90. Letter 90 What We Had Before We Wanted More
  91. Letter 91 A City Gone by Morning
  92. Letter 92 The Soul Knows Where It Came From
  93. Letter 93 Not How Long, But How Much
  94. Letter 94 The Voice You Need in the Room
  95. Letter 95 A Star to Steer By
  96. Letter 96 The Tax of Living
  97. Letter 97 Every Age Thinks It's the Worst One
  98. Letter 98 What Fortune Cannot Take Back
  99. Letter 99 On Grief That Is Yours and Grief That Is For Show
  100. Letter 100 What Good Prose Actually Does
  101. Letter 101 Nobody Owes You Tomorrow
  102. Letter 102 What the Mind Doesn't Fit Inside
  103. Letter 103 The Danger That Doesn't Announce Itself
  104. Letter 104 You Can't Outrun Yourself
  105. Letter 105 What Actually Keeps You Safe
  106. Letter 107 The Slaves Ran Off — So What
  107. Letter 108 What Stays After the Lecture Ends
  108. Letter 109 Why Even the Best of Us Need Each Other
  109. Letter 110 The Smallness of What Dazzles
  110. Letter 111 The Mountain Doesn't Stretch Itself
  111. Letter 112 On the Friend You Can't Yet Save
  112. Letter 113 The Kingdom No One Can See
  113. Letter 114 How You Write Is Who You Are
  114. Letter 115 Gold Leaf Over Ugly Wood
  115. Letter 116 Don't Negotiate With the Entrance
  116. Letter 117 While the House Is on Fire
  117. Letter 118 I Have Nothing to Do With You, Fortune
  118. Letter 119 The Shortest Path to Wealth
  119. Letter 120 How We Learned What Good Looked Like
  120. Letter 121 What You Knew Before You Were Taught
  121. Letter 122 Living Backwards
  122. Letter 123 What Arrives Uninvited
  123. Letter 124 What Is Yours