One evening Epictetus woke up to hear someone in his house. Walking towards the noise, he found a criminal had stolen the iron lamp he kept burning in a shrine in his front hallway. As always, Epictetus handled the situation with calmness and humor. “Tomorrow,” he said to himself, “you will find an earthenware lamp; for a man can only lose what he has.”

But what if Epictetus had been awake when the man walked in? What if he had caught the thief red handed? Would he have beaten the criminal up?

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And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt, Ryan discusses what the Stoics have to say about the idea of choosing one's family, and being worth chosen as family.

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