
Your Opinions Aren't Observations, They're Demands
From The Stoic Handbook with Jon Brooks by Jon Brooks
March 10, 2026 · 9 min
About this episode
This episode discusses the difference between opinions and observations in the context of Stoic practice.
You form hundreds of opinions a day. About the news, about your colleagues, about the person in front of you in the queue. They feel automatic, like seeing. But they are not observations. They are tiny laws you are writing inside your own skull, and then you have to enforce them. Marcus Aurelius buried one of his best lines in Book Six of the Meditations: it is in your power to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be disturbed in your soul. In this episode I unpack what that means in pra...
People in this episode
Host: Jon Brooks
Topics covered
- Stoicism
- self-improvement
- opinions
- observations
- mindfulness
- personal development
Keywords
- Stoic practice
- opinions
- observations
- Marcus Aurelius
- self-improvement
- mindfulness
- 7-day challenge
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