Wisdom from the Stoics…and cartoon characters

I recently hosted my friend Ryan Holiday on The Puzzler podcast. Ryan has written some wildly successful books about Stoicism that have sales numbers that would make me very jealous – if I hadn’t absorbed the Stoic value of acceptance, of course.

As a puzzle to give to Ryan, I created a quiz: Stoic philosopher or cartoon character? I’d give two quotes, and he’d have to figure out which was which.

I did this because I noticed that you could find wisdom in both places. I’m a big fan of the Stoic approach to life (or at least some of their thoughts), but I’m also a big fan of cartoon character wisdom – for instance, Jake from Adventure Time’s gem that “Sucking is the first step to being sorta good at something.”

Below, is a sample of the quiz -- which Ryan did well on, though I did stump him on a couple.

I’ve put the answers at the bottom – along with some (very brief) thoughts on the quotations, since it’s my Substack and I couldn’t resist. I could have written an essay on each quote, and what parts I agree with and what parts I don’t. But I’ve gotten a couple of emails saying I should resist the urge to write a novella in my Substack posts, so I kept it brief. (I’m sure there’s a Stoic quote somewhere on the importance of brevity).

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QUIZ: Which is the quote from a Stoic philosopher, and which is from a cartoon character?

1. QUOTE A: “Rivers know this. There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

   QUOTE B: “Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time.”

2. QUOTE A: “Life is anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.”

   QUOTE B: “Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.”

3. QUOTE A: “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”

   QUOTE B: “There’s no secret ingredient. It’s just you.”

4. QUOTE A: “You will find that if you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark, that is all you will ever see.”

   QUOTE B: “It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

5. QUOTE A: “Accept the things to which fate binds you.”

   QUOTE B: “You can't keep blaming yourself. Just blame yourself once and move on.”

6. QUOTE A: “How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.”

   QUOTE B: “Something weird might just be something familiar viewed from a different angle.”

7. QUOTE A: “If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”

   QUOTE B: “One person really can make a difference, but most of the time they probably shouldn’t.

ANSWERS:

QUESTION 1:

Quote A is Winnie the Pooh and Quote B is Marcus Aurelius

MY TAKE: Winnie the Pooh’s quote is a lovely homage to patience. I should add, though, that I have mixed feelings about patience. If we can’t control the timing, such as waiting for the results of an election, then, yes, be like the lazy river. But if you can exert some control over timing, such as getting people to focus on an under-recognized health crisis, patience isn’t always a virtue.

QUESTION 2:

Quote A is Seneca and Quote B is Snoopy.

MY TAKE: I’m struck by Snoopy’s suggestion to “rest this afternoon.” He seems to have been ahead of the curve on the self-care movement. Intellectually, I know that rest is important – when doing my book on living biblically, I learned the wisdom of the Sabbath – but honestly, I’m terrible at it. I should learn from Snoopy.

QUESTION 3

ANSWER: Quote A is Marcus Aurelius and Quote B is Po’s father, from Kung Fu Panda (it’s about noodle soup but also life).

MY TAKE: These are similar to Shakespeare’s quote “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” I’m a fan of this idea, often called “reframing” by psychologists (with a caveat). See next question.

QUESTION 4:

Quote A is Uncle Iroh on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Quote B is Epictetus

MY TAKE: These are also odes to reframing. One of my favorite examples of reframing is an experiment I read about in one of Gretchen Rubin’s books. Psychologists had people smell a chemical – and they told half of the subjects it was parmesan, and the other half it was vomit. The latter cohort was much more disgusted. So maybe try to smell the parmesan in life instead of the vomit.

One big caveat: Reframing has limits, especially when exhorting others. I wouldn’t say to someone in chronic pain, “just reframe it as an interesting experience!” That’s just cruel.

QUESTION 5:

Quote A is Marcus Aurelius, and Quote B is Homer Simpson

MY TAKE: Both of these quotes are about acceptance, a value that I’ve come to embrace. Homer might be right when he says “blame yourself once.” It’s a good reminder to have some self-compassion. But I’d balance this acceptance of past mistakes with a desire to change those things we can change. I’d suggest tweaking Homer’s quote to “Blame yourself once, apologize to those you’ve hurt, and try to do better in the future.” Hilarious, I know!

QUESTION 6:

Quote A is Marcus Aurelius, and Quote B is Marceline’s Mom on Adventure Time

MY TAKE: I like Marcy’s mom’s idea that “something weird might be something familiar viewed from a different angle.” In fact, I spend a lot of time trying to look at familiar things from a different angle. For instance, there was my previous Substack about how weird it is that we still split the day into 12-hour chunks because of centuries-old clock technology.

QUESTION 7:

Quote A is Marcus Aurelius, and Quote B is Marge Simpson

MY TAKE: I think Marge Simpson has an interesting point here: “making a difference” is no guarantee you’re making the world better. I’m a big fan of change, but sometimes we fetishize change for change’s sake. Over the years, I’ve become more interested in thoughtful, incremental change.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on either the Stoics or cartoons.