Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE CYNICS. 17It was not enough with Socrates to practise moderation,or to control the wayward impulses of passion.Their object was to push much further their indifferenceto all that was not wholly in their power, toreduce their wants within the narrowest limits, andtrample on the pleasures they despised. The Greeklevel of requirements was moderate enough,ifjudgedby the standard of our modern comforts ;but theCynics would reduce life to its barest elements, andprune away most of the decencies of civilized societyas the mere superfluities of luxurious refinement.They gave up their property to live upon the beggar'sdole ; they were content with the scantiest clothing,and that sometimes so ragged that Antisthenes wastold his vanity might be seen through the holes of hisown coat. They could dispense with house or bed,and stretch themselves to sleep upon the stones, orlike Diogenes, in some convenient tub. The plainestdiet was thought enough;and as a return to simplenature, it was proposed even to dispense with the helpof fire, and to eat all their food uncooked.While so many of the wants of civilized life werethus discouraged,it was not likely that the institutionsof the State would be regarded with much favourThe sage, they thought, should feel himself a citizenof the world at large, and be indifferent to the pettypolitics of any little State, with all their much adoabout the trifles of honours or ofiicial rank. None ofthe governments that were could satisfy his judgment,for in all of them the choice of rulers turned on theaccidents of fortune, not on the essentials of true