#1019 Pythagoras’s PM Review

Via His Golden Verses

In our last couple +1s, we retraced my steps through the Heroic Stoic library of wisdom—going from Musonius Rufus’s Lectures and Sayings to Massimo Pigliucci imaginary dialogues with Epictetus’s in How to Be a Stoic.

You know what I read right after those two books?

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson.

In addition to winning the award for best title ever and giving us a fantastic biography of Marcus Aurelius, the book is packed with a TON of Stoic practices.

As we’ve discussed, Donald Robertson is one of the world’s leading practical scholars on Stoicism. He’s also a practicing therapist who wrote The Philosophy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

He’s the guy who gave us the whole “Warriors vs. Librarians” distinction—reminding us that it’s not enough to merely STUDY philosophy. The ancient philosophers PRACTICED it.

Today we’re going to talk about one of the practices from his book.

Want to think like a Roman Emperor?

Follow Pythagoras’s advice and have a solid PM review.

Donald tells us: “This famous passage from [Pythagoras’s] “The Golden Verses,” which Epictetus quoted to his students, describes the evening meditation:

Allow not sleep to close your wearied eyes,
Until you have reckoned up each daytime deed:
‘Where did I go wrong? What did I do? And what duty’s left undone?’
From first to last review your acts and then
Reprove yourself for wretched acts, but rejoice in those done well.”

That’s Today’s +1.

If you feel so inspired:

Allow not sleep to close your wearied eyes,
Until you have reckoned up each daytime deed:
‘Where did I go wrong? What did I do? And what duty’s left undone?’
From first to last review your acts and then
Reprove yourself for wretched acts, but rejoice in those done well.”

+1. +1. +1.

Old school style.

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