Hold These Two Ideas in Mind

Today's Daily Stoic.

Here’s James Baldwin expressing Stoicism by another name in Notes of a Native Son:

“It began to seem that one would have to hold in mind forever two ideas which seemed to be in opposition. The first idea was acceptance, the acceptance, totally without rancor, of life as it is, and men as they are: in light of this idea it goes without saying that injustice is commonplace. But this did not mean that one could be complacent, for the second idea was of equal power: that one must never, in one’s own life, accept these injustices as commonplace but one must fight them with all one’s strength.”

Hold that in mind today and everyday, no matter how contradictory it might seem at times: Accept life for what is without even a hint of bitterness. Do everything you can to improve and change injustice whenever it is within your power.