My third book, Stoic Paradoxes, is now available on Amazon.
It is offered in both Kindle edition and in paperback. Click on the cover image above.
I wanted to use this post to explain what the book is about, and why it is an important addition to the literature on Stoicism.
I have a close friend who knows a great deal about the game of baseball. I always defer to his knowledge in discussions of the sport. We were recently talking about the relative merits of modern ball players when compared to the great figures of earlier generations. It is a debate that has no end, of course, but it is still entertaining.
Readers no doubt are familiar with Jack London. One of the great 20th century American novelists and short-story writers, he is justly famous for his harrowing tales of survival and courage, often set in exotic locales like the Klondike, the South Seas, and the abysses of urban squalor.
He lived a life that was as adventurous as one of the characters in his stories. Before becoming a full-time writer, he had knocked about as a vagrant, an oyster pirate, a seaman, a gold prospector, and most bitterly as an industrial slave-laborer.
I have recently finished reading Simon Murray’s memoir of his life in the French Foreign Legion, which is titled simply Legionnaire: Five Years in the French Foreign Legion. First published in 1978, it was recently reissued in 2006 as a mass market paperback.
Great men make laws, and greater men interpret them.
If a leader wishes to achieve immortality, let him organize, arrange, and codify a body of law for his people. Many of the greatest leaders (Numa Pompilia, Lycurgus, Solon, etc.) have been lawgivers. The monuments of stone have crumbled, but the laws remain.
To codify is to bestow immortality.
I read this weekend an article in the BBC that I interpreted as a good thing. The article was discussing a recent decision of Pakistan’s Supreme Court to replace English with Urdu as the official language.
I should say at the outset here that I have never been to Pakistan and know nothing about its languages. So why was I happy to see the Pakistan elevate Urdu as the official language? This is the reason: it shows that the dominance of English can be challenged.
I was talking to a friend earlier today, and the conversation happened to be diverted into the topic of hucksters, pitch-men, and carnival-barkers.
After thinking about the conversation, my mind wandered off to some of the late-night “pitch-man” advertising I had seen years ago.
The Sufi order called Qadiri was founded by Abdul Qadir Gilani Al Amoli (1077–1166). He was born at Nif, which lies to the south of the Caspian Sea. The Qadiriyya Order is a large one and has many adherents in the Islamic world.
There is a teaching story that I came across recently that reminded me of some of the stories told by the Stoics. It stands for the idea that the right thing must be done for the right reason; and that actions without pure motives remain worthless.
I have adapted this story from Indries Shah’s The Way of the Sufi.
A peasant once planted come vines out of a desire to create something beautiful and produce something of worth. But the vines he planted were the type of vine that only bore fruit after many years.
I wanted to write something in response to some recent articles and commentary I’ve seen from colleagues and friends of mine. It concerns the subject of college.
Much of this recent commentary, while well-meaning and making valid points, nevertheless paints a picture that is in need of qualification.
So I wanted to share my thoughts.
Is it a waste of time? Should you go? Should you go to a trade school? Should you start working?
We do not often think about how knowledge is gained or transmitted. We simply take it for granted that some idea or morsel of information crosses our path, which we then incorporate into our storehouse of knowledge.
Or do we? Is this really how information is, or should be, passed on?
Quintus Curtius 
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