June 25, 2026

We are not given to luxury, but to virtue." — Hierocles, Elements of Ethics

Hierocles wrote in the second century AD, during a period when Roman prosperity had made excess ordinary and expected. He was a practicing Stoic teacher, and his Elements of Ethics was a practical guide to daily life, not abstract philosophy. He pushed back against the idea that comfort was a right or even a goal, arguing that the purpose of a human life was moral development, not ease. That distinction still cuts through clearly today, when convenience is everywhere and the question of what we actually need gets harder to answer.