“Show me someone sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and happy, exiled and happy, disgraced and happy. Show me! By God, how much I’d like to see a Stoic. But since you can’t show me someone that perfectly formed, at least show me someone actively forming themselves so, inclined in this way… Show me!”
EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.19.24-25a, 28
There is no such thing as a fully-realized Stoic. None of us have fully ‘arrived’. In fact, “one never arrives” when studying stoicism, says author Ryan Holiday. That’s because philosophy is a process — it’s not an end goal.
We’re always working to improve ourselves, but we can’t expect to ever attain perfection, because that’s just an ideal. In the same way that life is never perfect, we understand that we ourselves are never going to be perfect either. But that doesn’t stop us from striving for that ideal as best we can!
As Epictetus stated in today’s quote, there is nobody who is “perfectly formed”. But we are always “actively forming [ourselves]”, always working toward self-improvement. And that’s what really matters, anyway — that we understand our work is never done, that we are never done, and we’ve always got room for growth.
