St. George Stock (modern guide) · 1850–1922
A Guide to Stoicism 4 ¶36 — St. George Stock (modern guide)
From “Ethic”
Original English text (1908)
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 4 ¶36
From these concessions to the weakness of humanity we now pass to the Stoic paradoxes, where we shall see their doctrine in its full rigor. It is perhaps these very paradoxes which account for the puzzled fascination with which Stoicism affected the mind of antiquity, just as obscurity in a poet may prove a surer passport to fame than more strictly poetical merits.
Cite this passage
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 4 ¶36 (1908)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/a-guide-to-stoicism/4.36
St. George Stock, Stoicism (1908), text of the Haldeman-Julius reprint “A Guide to Stoicism”. Text: Project Gutenberg #7514. Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA transition passage: after concessions to ordinary human weakness, the discussion turns to the Stoic paradoxes, whose strangeness helped give the school its pull on the ancient mind.
Older wording
- “paradoxes”
- — claims that seem to contradict common sense
Themes and situations
- Learning and progress
- Virtue and character
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