The Stoic Gospel: A Selection from Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full (2001)

“To a Stoic there are no dilemmas. They don’t exist. . . . I’ll try to give you an example . . . there was a famous Stoic named Agrippinus, if that’s the way you pronounce it. . . . Anyway, one day—this was in Rome at the time Nero was the emperor, about 95 A.D.—Nero loved to humiliate prominent Romans by ordering them to put on costumes and make fools of themselves in these plays he used to write.

So one day this well-known Roman historian named Florus arrives at Agrippinus’ house, and he’s sweating and trembling, and he says to Agrippinus: ‘The most terrible thing has happened. I’ve been summoned to appear in one of Nero’s plays. If I do it, I’ll be humiliated before everybody in Rome that I care about. If I don’t, I’ll be killed.’

‘I’ve received the same summons,’ says Agrippinus.’ ‘My God,’ says the historian, ‘you, too! What do we do?’ ‘You go ahead and act in the play,’ said Agrippinus. ‘I’m not going to.’ ‘Why me and not you?’ said the historian.’ ‘Because you’ve considered it.’

Most philosophies assume that you’re free, you’ve got all these possibilities, and it’s like you can design your own life any way you want. . . . The Stoics, they assumed the opposite. They said that in fact you have very few choices. You’re probably trapped in some situation, everything from being under somebody’s thumb to being a slave to disease to actually being in jail. They assumed that in all likelihood you weren’t free. . . .

Today people think of Stoics—like, you know, like they’re people who grit their teeth and tolerate pain and suffering. But that’s not it at all. What they are is, they’re serene and confident in the face of anything you can throw at them. If you say to a Stoic, ‘Look, you do what I tell you or I’ll kill you,’ he’ll look you in the eye and say, ‘You do what you have to do, and I’ll do what I have to do—and, by the way, when did I ever tell you I was immortal?’”—Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full (2001)