The armies of North Korea burst into South Korea in June 1950 and quickly overwhelmed its forces, confining them to a perimeter around the city of Pusan. Douglas MacArthur, in what can only be called a brilliant counterstroke, hit back with an amphibious landing at the city of Inchon.
We continue our lecture series on Stoic Paradoxes
This podcast was brought to you courtesy of Fortress of the Mind Publications.
As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Frequent reader Lucas Temple mentioned to me recently that he would like to hear a reading of the prologue of my book Pantheon: Adventures In History, Biography, And The Mind
The incident highlights the themes of persistence, struggle, and the idea that brilliant success often comes just when all seems lost.
So, Lucas, this one’s for you, brother. I hope you enjoy it.
My podcasts will also soon also be available on iTunes. I will keep listeners informed.
This podcast was brought to you courtesy of Fortress of the Mind Publishing.
To listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, click here.
In this second lecture of our series on Stoic Paradoxes, we focus on the influences behind Cicero’s thought, and how he identified himself doctrinally.
This podcast is brought to you by Fortress of the Mind Publications.
Pyrrhus was a powerful king who ruled Epirus and Macedon for some years during the Hellenistic period. Plutarch tells a revealing story about him in his Parallel Lives (Life of Epirus, 14).
One of Pyrrhus’s valued advisors was a man named Cineas, who was entrusted on many foreign missions of great sensitivity.
[To read the rest of my article, click here.]
I have decided to add podcasts to the content offered on my site. There is a refreshing value in mixing the presentation of material by audio, along with material already offered in a written format.
Because of the many questions I receive on Stoicism, and the enduring interest in this subject, I have decided to give a series of 10 lectures on Cicero’s Stoic Paradoxes.
I published a translation of Stoic Paradoxes
Since this is the first podcast I’ve made, I appreciate the feedback of listeners. I expect things to become additionally refined as we move forward.
For well over a year now, I’ve been working steadily on the most ambitious literary project of my life. It has been an incredible and exhausting adventure, and has opened up vistas in my perception of the world that I never would have expected.
Our spirits are driven by two things: appetite and Reason.
Appetite is the hunger for pleasures, and Reason is the rational impulse. When Reason does not control the appetite, then the appetite usurps the leadership position of the spirit.
And this is a sure road to ruin.
Appetite leads us around aimlessly by the nose, this way and that, like some kind of insensate farm animal.
One of the questions that I’ve been asked a lot these days is how one’s perceptions change about things as one gets older. A lot of younger guys in their twenties or thirties want to get a glimpse of what lies around the corners of life that they will be approaching soon.
[To read the rest of the article, click here.]
Here is a sly and amusing story that I came across in Plutarch this weekend. We find it in his Life of Demetrius (Ch. 27). It is short, but effective.
There was an Egyptian pharaoh named Bakenranef, who was known to the Greeks as Bocchoris (names of foreign rulers and notables were often Hellenized by historians). According to the chronicler Manetho, he ruled Lower Egypt as a king of the Twenty-Fourth Dynasty from 725 to 720 B.C. According to tradition, he was famous for his wisdom and prudence.
Quintus Curtius 
You must be logged in to post a comment.