Why the Stoics Ignored Most Things

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]You have to remember the Stoics tell us that we always have the power to have no opinion. We don't have to let things upset us. We don't have to let them rattle around in our head. We don't have to wonder what they mean or why they're happening. Right? This isn't to say that the Stoics were apathetic. They absolutely were not. I mean, the Stoics were involved in politics. The Stoics were involved in public life. They ran businesses. They were engaged in their community. But they understood that a lot of what was happening around them didn't really matter. It was trivia. It was a distraction. It was a fad. It was a momentary outrage. And that if you try to focus on everything that's happening, if you try to have an opinion on every little thing, not only are you going to burn out, but you're not going to have the energy and the focus you need to lock into the things that really matter.

[00:00:43]That was Marcus Aurelius's question, "Is this essential?" So, cuz most of what we do and say and think about is not essential. So, by limiting the number of opinions we have about inessential things, he says it gives us the double benefit of doing the essential things better.