St. George Stock (modern guide) · 1850–1922
A Guide to Stoicism 4 ¶53 — St. George Stock (modern guide)
From “Ethic”
Original English text (1908)
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 4 ¶53
There remains one more leading characteristic of the sage, the most striking of them all, and the most important from the ethical point of view. This was his innocence or harmlessness. He would not harm others and was not to be harmed by them. For the Stoics believed with Socrates that it was not permissible by the divine law for a better man to be harmed by a worse. You could not harm the sage any more than you could harm the sunlight; he was in our world, but not of it. There was no possibility of evil for him, save in his own will, and that you could not touch. And as the sage was beyond harm, so also was he above insult. Men might disgrace themselves by their insolent attitude towards his mild majesty, but it was not in their power to disgrace him.
Cite this passage
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 4 ¶53 (1908)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/a-guide-to-stoicism/4.53
St. George Stock, Stoicism (1908), text of the Haldeman-Julius reprint “A Guide to Stoicism”. Text: Project Gutenberg #7514. Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThe wise person neither harms others nor can be harmed by them, because the only real evil is in one's own will and nobody else can touch that. You could no more harm them than you could harm the sunlight, and insults disgrace only the people who throw them.
Older wording
- “insolent”
- — rudely disrespectful
Themes and situations
- Insult and criticism
- What is in our control
- Resilience and endurance
- Judgements and impressions
- Virtue and character
- Being criticised or insulted
- Being treated unfairly
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