The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks

Seneca On The Value of Past Hardship

Jon Brooks

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In today’s audio lesson I read out and reflect on the following quote by Seneca: 

“This is the touchstone of such a spirit; no prizefighter can go with high spirits into the strife if he has never been beaten black and blue; the only contestant who can confidently enter the lists is the man who has seen his own blood, who has felt his teeth rattle beneath his opponent's fist, who has been tripped and felt the full force of his adversary's charge, who has been downed in body but not in spirit, one who, as often as he falls, rises again with greater defiance than ever.”


Make sure to click the “play button” to listen to why I find this quote so meaningful, and why if applied to your own life, can radically transform it.