One of Epictetus’s quotes is particularly striking: “Who, then, is the invincible man? He whom nothing that is outside the sphere of his moral purpose can dismay.” Epictetus was offering a solution to a problem he saw in the souls of those around him: thinking oneself ready for hardship—in fact, invincible—when one has not the slightest idea what actual hardship is.

I believe Stoicism can be made more offensive. Rather than just calm and accepting, it can be energetic and immensely proactive. My hunch is Epictetus used extreme examples so that even if 2% of his teachings rubbed off on his students, they would forever be changed.

So in this piece I used an extreme example of a Medal of Honor winner to do the same.