“What is the work of virtue? Serenity. Who, then, is making progress? The man who has read many treatises of Chrysippus? What, is virtue no more than this — to have gained a knowledge of Chrysippus? For if it is this, progress is confessedly nothing else than a knowledge of many of the works of Chrysippus. …

And where is your work? In desire and aversion, that you may not miss what you desire and encounter what you would avoid; in choice and in refusal, that you may commit no fault therein; in giving and withholding assent of judgement, that you may not be deceived. …

Suppose, for example, that in talking to an athlete I said, ‘Show me your shoulders,’ and then he answered, ‘Look at my jumping-weights.’ Go hang, you and your jumping-weights! What I want to see is the effect of the jumping-weights. …

And so never look for your work in one place and your progress in another.”

(Discourses, I.4)

Get full access to Figs in Winter: Stoicism and Beyond at figsinwintertime.substack.com/subscribe